


Fade Away

by MistressNobody (mauzymorn)



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Flashbacks, Mild Sexual Content, Not Canon Compliant, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:49:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 42,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1779694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mauzymorn/pseuds/MistressNobody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rebecca runs into an old acquaintance while battling a new wave of infected. It doesn't turn out quite as expected. </p>
<p>Completely AU after the end of <em>Resident Evil: Zero</em>, so don't look for any kind of series cohesion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is a repost of an older story that I originally put up on ff.net years ago and subsequently removed when I trashed my account there. I've been getting a lot of requests and sadfaces to make it available again, so HERE YOUR PEER PRESSURE HAS WORKED. 
> 
> Please keep in mind this story is years old and the writing is shitty. Y'all are crazy for wanting it back.
> 
>  
> 
> **As always, I do not own these characters or any registered/trademarked content that belongs to Capcom, etc. This story was written purely for my own amusement and no monetary gain.**

_God damn my life..._

Nothing had gone right for Rebecca Chambers since that fateful first mission with S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team three years ago. Her first mission, and she had lost team mates, her childish ideals, and the innocence with which she once viewed the world. Umbrella Corporation had stolen much from her with their ungodly experiments with the T-Virus, and Rebecca was not in the mood to be forgiving.

She'd kept on in her little vendetta against Umbrella, just as many of the others who'd survived the hellish recesses of the Spencer Mansion had. They'd all wanted to bring down the pharmaceutical giant in the most public and damaging way possible... and thought they'd succeeded. _Think again, Princess._

They'd failed, as she had just come to learn. To Rebecca, it was almost as if the last three years of her life had reversed; there was an outbreak of the T-Virus in Raccoon City... again. How this had happened, she still wasn't quite sure. After the explosion of the Arklay facilities, and the exposure of Wesker's duplicitous nature in the Spencer Mansion, Rebecca had been sure that no further problems would occur within Raccoon City... She'd thought that the residents - what was left of them - would be safe. _Do I need to repeat myself? Think again, Princess._

As always, Rebecca's internal cynic carried _his_ voice. It had been three years since she'd seen or talked to Billy Coen, and yet he'd remained firmly fixed in her mind. Unconsciously, she reached up and grasped his dog tags that lay hidden beneath her t-shirt. She'd never forgotten him... even when she'd tried so hard to. _Damn you, Billy Coen. Why can't I get you off my mind?_

Shaking off her bitter thoughts, Rebecca continued to load up her duffel with the supplies she would need. As she'd learned before: you could never be too prepared. And, as _he'd_ told her back then: you can never have too many guns. Heaving a sigh, she resolutely marched out the door.

Rebecca Chambers was going back to Raccoon City. _God help us all._


	2. An Old Friend?

It was a bad one. The newest outbreak in Raccoon was as bad as what she'd seen on the Ecliptic Express, as well as in the Spencer Mansion, three years prior. She raised her Beretta and drove a clean shot through the approaching zombie's left eye. _Not a zombie,_ she reminded herself, _a virus victim._ Zombies were things of pop culture and legend. Still, it was hard not to think the word when what appeared to be the walking dead was gaining on you to get a taste of your flesh.

She didn't even flinch as the decaying grey matter spewed out to splatter across the wall of the abandoned school she was in. Her naïve days of being sensitive to such things were long over. Continuing on, she reached up for her radio that was hooked to the shoulder of her vest to try and hail Chris Redfield. 

Chris had been a godsend. When news had come of the second outbreak in their old hometown, Chris had been one of the first alongside Rebecca to volunteer to go back in. His nightmarish memories of the place were probably comparable to hers, and they had worked together well the first time around whilst trapped in the mansion. In Chris, Rebecca had found the big brother she'd never had.

He'd told her many times that she reminded him strongly of his younger sister, Claire, and Rebecca liked the familial air that he always bestowed on her. When facing your worst nightmare, you could do worse than to have family to face it with.

"Chris, come in." She listened to static crackle over the radio, and knew that she wouldn't be getting a hold of him any time soon. Sighing heavily to herself, Rebecca continued down the hallway, faithful gun ever at the ready to shoot.

**_Rebecca - Age 13_ **

_She was walking back to her school after having lunch at home, just like she always did. Her headphones were on, and the harsh sounds of Hybrid Theory blared out of them at full volume. Her mother always insisted that she was going to make herself deaf one day, but Rebecca didn't believe that. Rock music just didn't sound right at a low volume._

_It was either fate or a very strange coincidence that she turned her volume down for a moment in front of this particular house. As the musical tones faded, she heard a very faint voice coming from the driveway to her left._

_"Please... help me..." Startled at the words, Rebecca glanced over at the house, and was met with a sight she'd never quite had to deal with before in her young life. An older man stood in the driveway, his hands raised to his face. Rebecca could see the torrent of blood that was pouring out from under his hands, and reacted before she really thought about it._

_Throwing her walkman to the ground, she ran over to the man and quickly placed her own bare hands over the laceration on his forehead, applying as much pressure as her thin, thirteen-year-old arms could. Making soothing noises to the panicking man, she led him inside his home and called for an ambulance, fetching a dish towel and using it to stem the flow of blood. The old man was losing too much blood; Rebecca knew that if they had to wait much longer for the ambulance, he would be in real trouble._

_Just as the thought occurred to her, she saw flashing lights through the window and quickly moved him out to the paramedics, so that they could rush him to the hospital all the faster. She kept a cool head all through this, her mind working logically at what had to be done. It was after the ambulance took the old man away that her own shock set in._

_There she was, in a stranger's empty house, with his blood running down her arms. Rebecca stared at the redness of it, her thoughts beginning to numb. Washing off the majority of the blood that she could, she went to school. She didn't know what else to do. She spent the rest of the day staring out the classroom window, and didn't tell a soul what had happened._

_A few days later, she stopped by the house on her way home from school, anxious to make sure that the old man had been okay. He answered the door himself, and a huge smile split his face as he recognized her. He had two black eyes, and a large bandage across his forehead. He'd lost three litres of blood, he told her. He insisted that he'd be dead if she hadn't stopped to help him._

_"My name's Ken Carter." He died that winter from a heart attack, and Rebecca tried to console herself with the fact that at least she'd helped him live an extra eight months._

_She never forgot that name for the rest of her life._

**_Present Day_ **

It was going to be her twenty-first birthday soon. The thought idly wandered through Rebecca's mind as she followed around the twisted hallways of the old school. She wondered if she'd live to see it. _Billy would be twenty-nine this year..._ She shook off the thought, telling herself that she couldn't afford to be distracted by wondering about him again.

The wall beside her suddenly crumbled, and a mutated python shot out at her from the breach. Its massive tail whipped out at her, knocking her slight body hard into the wall opposite. She could feel a rib crack as she made impact, and winced with the pain of it. She forced herself to raise her arms and fire at the face of the creature, but every breath was agony and the python was writhing its gargantuan frame too fast for her to get a clean shot. It reared up, lips drawing back to reveal the kind of fangs dripping in venom that you'd only expect to find in horror movies.

_This is it, I'm done._ As the fatalistic thought wound through her tired mind, a body launched itself in front of her, firing at the virus-filled snake. Three rounds boomed out of the figures Magnum, and the python's splintered carcass fell heavily to the floor. Staring in shock, Rebecca watched as her perfectly-timed saviour turned to face her.

"...Billy?" She whispered, hardly believing whom she was seeing in front of her. A smart-assed grin split his handsome face before he answered her. 

"So... you seem to know me. Been fantasizing about me, have you?" A smile broke across Rebecca's face as she realized that those words were exactly what he'd said to her when they'd met on the Ecliptic Express three years earlier.

* * *

Billy stared in awe at the smile of genuine happiness that crept onto Rebecca's face at his words, and couldn't help himself from gathering her small body into a tight hug. _God damn, I missed this little girl._ At her sharp hiss of pain, he released her quickly.

"What is it? You hurt?" She nodded a little, her face pinched and her lips pressed tightly together. Seeing her hold a hand tightly to her side, he had to figure that she'd busted a rib or two. As they both took a moment to recover from the giant-assed mutant of a snake, he studied her.

In the last three years, Rebecca Chambers had definitely grown up some. Her short, reddish-brown hair had grown out, and now hung in a neat braid over her shoulder. Her small med-kit sat over one ample hip, and her zombie ass-kicking clothes had definitely seen better days. By his guess, she'd probably been in this damn school for hours, fighting off creatures that shouldn't even exist.

Billy knew that he didn't understand all this scientific shit like the little protégé in front of him, but he did know that what Umbrella had been toying with just wasn't right. When he'd heard that she was returning to Raccoon City, he couldn't have stopped himself from showing up to lend her a hand, even if he'd wanted to.

The girl had given him his freedom when they'd last been together, and he wouldn't ever forget that. He'd been completely unable to put her from his mind since the day they'd split up in the Raccoon forest, and he still had trouble coming to terms with that. He shouldn't be thinking about a girl almost eight years younger than him like he'd been thinking about her.

But still, he couldn't stop the thoughts. _Ah, hell. Why bother?_ It wasn't like thoughts could harm anyone. So long as she never found out about it, what could it hurt? Because he was sure that if she knew the kind of things that had gone on in his mind, she would probably run screaming in the opposite direction. _If anyone's been 'fantasizing', it's you, dumb ass._ Oh well. 

Helping her slowly to her feet, Billy tried to turn his thoughts away from her and instead toward the situation that they were now in. He wasn't too concerned about being caught; Rebecca had helped him with that by filing the report claiming he'd died in the Arklay mountains. As an added precaution, he'd altered his appearance somewhat in the last three years. He'd cut his hair shorter, and allowed a bit of scruff and stubble to grow to disguise his face. The big thing had been the tattoo. He refused to get his tattoo - which at first glance looked like a tribal design, but really read 'mother love' - removed. He'd gotten it for his mother, and if anyone thought that was wimpy, well they could just go fuck themselves. Instead, he'd taken to wearing longer sleeves that could just cover it up.

Peering down the darkened hallway ahead of them, Billy tried to work out their odds. If they continued down the hall, it was likely that there were more of the freakish zombies right around the corner. Or, they could go through the hole in the wall that the snake had made, and take their chances that way. As he mulled it over, Rebecca's radio on her shoulder crackled to life.

"Rebecca? Come in!" Rebecca gasped, and quickly fumbled for the receiver.

"Chris? Where are you?!" Billy frowned a little. _Who the hell is 'Chris'?_ He didn't like the familiarity and panicked concern that was in Rebecca's voice. _It's not your business if she's gotten herself a boyfriend, ass._ Billy forced himself to shake off the thoughts and pay attention to what they were saying. 

"I've made my way into the cafeteria. Where are you?" Rebecca let out a sigh of relief, and Billy had to assume that the cafeteria was a relatively safe zone. Personally, Billy had always hated school to begin with.

"I'm just two halls over from there." Rebecca replied. "I've run into a... friend. We'll make our way there and rendezvous with you. Stay put!" There was a moment of silence over the radio as they waited for a response.

"...Okay. Rebecca? Be safe." A jealous little beast buried within Billy snarled at the loving tone of voice the faceless 'Chris' had for his Becca. _Not yours!_ Shaking off his thoughts once again, Billy made himself focus on the task at hand. He could worry about the rest after they made it out of here alive.


	3. Picking Up the Pieces

"Chris!" Rebecca ran toward the tall, imposing figure on the other side of the cafeteria, and Billy found himself frowning again as 'Chris' threw an arm over her shoulder. The guy was wearing an old Raccoon S.T.A.R.S. uniform, and Billy guessed that this was how they'd met each other. 

The guy glanced in his direction over the top of Rebecca's head, and Billy could read a wary curiosity in his eyes. _That_ he could understand. Umbrella seemed to have the ability to make you instantly distrust all newcomers. Little did he know, Billy had been in the zombie-killing game with Becca long before _he'd_ probably shown up. Pasting a smart-assed grin on his face, he stood back and waited for her to make some introductions.

"Chris, this is... Billy. He's with us, so don't worry." Billy watched as her teeth softly bit into her lower lip, her nervousness obvious. Chris' hand seemed to tighten on her shoulder, and Billy found himself clenching his teeth. _Woah, you really need to get this jealousy in check, pal. This is definitely not the time for it._

"Billy." Chris nodded in his direction, and finally let Rebecca go. Billy forced himself to relax the tense muscles in his shoulders. "Okay, we're running out of ammo. I figure the best way to get out of here and regroup is through the kitchen behind us." Rebecca nodded in agreement, and he would just have to trust their judgment. He hadn't been all over the school like they had.

"Where's Jill?" Rebecca asked. Billy raised a brow. _There's another woman wandering around in this hellhole?_ He wasn't sexist by any means, and he knew that Rebecca could take care of herself, but Billy was still enough of a guy to not like the whole women-in-danger thing. Call him old-fashioned. 

"She radioed in a minute or two after you did. She's already made it out to the courtyard just behind the building. We'll rendezvous with her there." Sharing a last glance with each other, the three of them all mentally prepared to enter the kitchen area.

"Let's move."

**_Billy - Age 20_ **

_She'd come to him, crying her poor heart out over an asshole of a boyfriend that didn't deserve her. He hated cheaters... And he especially hated ones who had the balls to fuck around on his friends. He sat down beside her, and threw an arm over her shoulder._

_"Billy, am I taking this the wrong way? Am I wrong?" He shook his head hard, and bent his tall frame down to look her in the eye._

_"You're not wrong. Cheating's cheating, and he's the dick for doing this." She nodded her head at that, the sight of her puffy red eyes almost breaking his heart. The girl was almost like a sister to him, and he wanted to beat the fucker senseless for doing this to her._

_Wanting to work a smile out of her, he patted her on the shoulder before getting up. She glanced at him, confused at where he was going. When he entered the room again, he had his steel baseball bat slung over his shoulder._

_"I could go pay him a little visit, you know." Just like he'd known it would, the sight worked a smile and a small laugh out of her. She sighed out a breath._

_"No, don't hurt him." He'd known that she would say that. She was too much a kind heart to wish harm on anyone, no matter what they'd done to her._

_It didn't stop him from mentally planning to get even on her behalf regardless._

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca watched in horror as one of the infected got the upper hand on Chris, and his Beretta skidded across the floor, out of his reach. Just as she raised her own gun to help him out, two more were stretching their decaying fingertips toward her, forcing her to turn the firearm in their direction.

After dispatching them, she turned back around, fearing for her friend. Rebecca had turned just in time to witness Billy tossing a meat cleaver that had hung from a rack on the wall in Chris' direction. She closed her eyes, not wanting to witness what she knew was coming next. _After everything I've seen, I still don't need to watch Chris decapitate one of them with a meat cleaver, thanks._

Moving on, Rebecca figured that they were close to the exit through the kitchen. Adrenaline pumped through her system, and she kept telling herself that if she could just get outside to regroup with Jill, everything would be okay. Rebecca may have become a lot more jaded in the past few years, but there were some desperate situations where if you didn't maintain at least _some_ optimism, you might as well just give up.

Her rib was cracked from her earlier run-in with the python, exhaustion pulled sharply at her body, and her weary mind was threatening to make her lose her concentration on the task at hand, but Rebecca made herself hold on. _Twenty more feet to the door... Fifteen..._

Her foot caught on a tumbled cart, and her body pitched suddenly forward. A quick flash of panic welled within her, before she felt rough fingers grip her upper arm strongly. She glanced up to see Billy above her, gracing her with a quick grin before turning to fire his Magnum behind them. 

Racing for the door once again, the three of them showed only grim faces of determination. _We **will** make it out of here alive!_

* * *

Billy stumbled through the back door of the school's kitchen right behind Rebecca, and followed closely by Chris. Out in the courtyard, he could see the lean figure of a woman waiting for them, her head turning sharply in their direction at the noise from the door. Like Chris, she too wore an old Raccoon S.T.A.R.S. uniform. _This must be 'Jill'_ , he thought to himself. As they approached nearer, he could make out her sharp, catlike eyes that seemed to assess everything around her. She was a tall, dark beauty, that was for sure. _Still got nothing compared to how my Becca's turned out..._

Jill's eyes seemed to roam over him, not missing a beat. Billy got the feeling that very little could fool this woman. When they reached level with her, Billy paused to catch his breath, and Rebecca halted just beside him. He was surprised when Chris kept walking toward the woman, ending by scooping her up into his arms. He raised a brow when they kissed, and glanced toward Rebecca. She only softly smiled at the sight, and he was forced to admit to himself that he'd read the situation the wrong way. _He's not her boyfriend at all, you idiot. This is what jealousy gets you._

A knot within his chest seemed to ease, only to tighten once again. _Just because he's not her boyfriend, doesn't mean she doesn't have one... **look** at her._ Firmly pushing the thoughts back, Billy listened intently as the others came up with a plan of attack, so to speak. Rebecca's sudden sharp gasp caught his attention, his gun coming up reflexively. He couldn't understand where the danger was that had made her cry out, as her worried eyes were only trained on him. 

"What?" He asked gruffly, his heart slowly coming back to a normal beat. She'd just scared the shit out of him, making him think that something was wrong.

"Billy... your arm!" She stepped forward, quickly grabbing his right arm, where blood had slowly been dripping from underneath his long sleeve without his notice. "It needs attention!" Her thin fingers were hurriedly beginning to shove the sleeve of his shirt higher, focusing only on healing whatever wound it was that he had. _Ah, fuck._ Unfortunately, it was the arm with his tattoo. Grabbing her tiny hand with his, he stilled her movements before she could expose his tattoo. 

"Becca... Not _now_." There was an urgency in his voice as he tried to make her realize without words that she had just almost given him up as the wanted-man William Coen with her innocent act. He read the understanding in her eyes, and she took a step away from him. He slowly released her hand, not really wanting to give up the contact. She turned to Chris and Jill, and seemed to take a deep breath.

"Guys... We need somewhere we can sit and regroup. We need to talk." They nodded at her, curiosity evident in their gazes. Clearly, they hadn't missed the little silent exchange that he and Becca'd just had.

"I know just the place." Jill assured, and turned around to lead the way, Chris catching up to put an arm over her shoulders. Billy turned to look at Becca, trying to be reassuring. 

"Come on, Beautiful. Let's get this done with."


	4. Am I Evil?

Rebecca stretched her legs out in front of her, letting out a small sigh of contentment. Her world may be royally fucked up right then, but sitting down sure felt good. _It's funny, how much pleasure you can get out of the little things in life._ She glanced toward Billy from under her lashes, itching to be able to tend to his wound. It was bothering her, how much it was bleeding. He insisted he was fine, but that didn't stop her from worrying. _Men..._ , she thought with a mental shake of her head, _they'd bleed to death, if only to prove their manliness._

"So..." Jill said from her seat across the room. "I take it you two have something to share with us." Forthright, as usual, their Jill. Rebecca shared a nervous glance with Billy. Clearing her throat, she turned and looked at Chris.

"You remember, right before the mansion, hearing about an escaped felon?" Her voice quavered a little with nerves, and Rebecca forced herself to get it together. Chris nodded warily. "Well..." She once again looked at Billy, kind of at a loss how to tell them. She could see him roll his eyes.

"That would be me." He drawled out, a hint of amusement in his voice. _Tactful, Billy._ Rebecca thought with a roll of her eyes. _Screw it, since we've told them now anyways, I'm fixing his damn arm._ Getting up out of her chair, she went to kneel on the floor in front of his, rolling her sleeve up and out of her way. She could see Chris' eyes trace over the bit of his tattoo that was uncovered.

"William Coen?" Chris asked. Billy flashed a grin.

"In the flesh. But, really, just Billy's fine... No need to be so formal." He said with a smart-assed grin on his face. Rebecca wanted to smack him upside the head. She tugged a little harder than necessary on the stitch she'd just put into his forearm, making him wince. He glanced down at her. "Alright, alright... you made your point, Beautiful." Chris cleared his throat. 

"So I take it that since: a) Rebecca lied about you being dead in the first place which allowed you to escape, and b) she's sitting here making sure you _don't_ bleed to death, that means we can trust you." Chris raised a brow, and Jill snickered. Rebecca blushed a little at the reminder that she had technically helped a wanted felon escape.

"Billy didn't actually kill all those people." She spoke up, feeling compelled to defend him for some reason. She bit her lip when Billy just stared down at her. "What? It's true..." He flashed her a quick grin.

"Just the first time someone's actually believed me, that's all." Blushing a little more, Rebecca glanced around the abandoned house that Jill had led them to. It was a nice little place, with only a bit of damage from when those not infected by the outbreak had made a fast exit. Billy and Chris began to talk strategies, and Rebecca decided to temporarily tune out. After she had finished her stitching and wrapped Billy's arm, she sat on the floor by his chair and dozed off, her head sliding slightly to lean against his leg.

**_Rebecca - Age 14_ **

_She pulled her legs up on top of the hard plastic seat, leaning her knees against the table in front of her. Rebecca sipped on her cold drink from the coffee shop they were sitting in, as she contemplated the boy sitting across from her._

_She had met James through her group of friends at school, and usually they only saw each other when everyone was together. Today was a random day when the others had all taken off for parts unknown at lunch, and the two of them had been left to their own devices._

_Rebecca knew that he liked her... it wasn't as if he tried to hide it. Tilting her head to the side, she found herself focusing on his blue eyes. What made him tick? That was the one thing that Rebecca's logical mind had never been able to figure out: boys._

_"James?" She questioned. She watched as one of his dark brows raised slightly._

_"Yeah?"_

_"What do you like about me?" He looked a little startled at the forthright question, and took a sip of his drink to give himself a moment to think. Rebecca was genuinely curious. All through elementary school, the boys had only ever called her a freak, or told her that she was ugly. Even once in high school, some of them still did._

_"I don't know, really." He answered. Rebecca frowned a little... that wasn't what she had been expecting. "You're beautiful though, you know that?" A blush worked its way onto her cheeks, and she hoped that he couldn't see it._

_Was she beautiful? Nobody else seemed to think so._

**_Present Day_ **

Billy gazed down at Rebecca's head leaning against his leg, her breathing soft with sleep. He lightly ran a hand down her hair, not wanting to wake her. He'd discovered that Chris definitely knew what he was doing when it came to tactical business, and the woman - Jill - seemed to be some sort of expert on all things usually considered illegal. He liked her.

He could tell that the two of them were still a little suspicious over just how friendly he and Becca seemed to be, so he'd ended up telling them about the various dangers they'd worked through together while trapped three years ago. Chris and Jill hadn't seemed surprised, and had even filled him in a little on what had happened in the Spencer Mansion. _God damn, you just didn't get a break that night... Did ya, little girl?_ , he thought, while glancing back down at her dozing form again. 

Billy found it amazing that she'd gone through so much, and somehow kept her sanity intact. Once again, his thoughts turned to Umbrella Corp. Those fuckers deserved so much, for all the lives they'd ruined with their so-called 'research'. Billy may not have deserved the sentence he had so narrowly escaped from, but he'd gladly become a mass-murderer if it meant taking out those sick bastards.

Becca stirred against his leg, beginning to wake up. The floor was probably not the most comfy place to snooze, but none of them had wanted to disturb her. From the sounds of what Chris'd had to say, she probably hadn't been getting enough sleep, as was. 

"So," Chris sighed, to finish off the conversation they'd been having. "Let's find somewhere a little more secure to hole-up in for the night, and then we'll get back at it tomorrow. Somewhere in that school, Umbrella's hidden information, and it's our top priority to get it." Billy nodded his agreement, and shook Rebecca's shoulder to wake her. She slowly came-to, blinking those gorgeous eyelashes as she tried to focus on where she was. _Christ, you are just too tempting._

Giving her a hand up, Billy tried to keep his bad thoughts to himself. _Don't touch, don't touch, don't touch._ God, he needed to get a handle on himself.

* * *

Eventually, they made their way to an old S.T.A.R.S. bunker, where they would have slightly better protection for while they tried to get some rest. Rebecca shot a curious glance at Billy, wondering what he was thinking. _They don't seem to be happy thoughts, that's for sure._

This particular bunker held a few cots, so at least they had beds to sleep on... even if they weren't the most comfortable ones. Rebecca smiled a little as Chris and Jill got cozy on one of the cots, obviously feeling the need to be with each other after the stressful day they'd had. She went to climb up onto a cot of her own, but gasped in pain when the movement jarred her cracked rib. 

The noise had gotten Billy's attention, and he came to her side with a worried expression on his face. She gingerly turned around to face him, and motioned to the first air kit strapped on the wall across the room.

"Would you mind?" She clenched her teeth against the pain, and waited for him to return with the kit. 

"You're not gonna be able to wrap your own ribs properly." He grumbled, while taking the appropriate bandage out of the box. "I'll do it."

Nodding her agreement, Rebecca carefully peeled her t-shirt over her head, trying not to jar her hurt rib any more than necessary. As she pulled it fully off, a soft jingling noise sounded in the room. _Oh, shit..._ She'd forgotten about the dog tags. She was so used to them being there, since she wore them every day, that she hadn't thought about the fact that she'd be revealing them by taking off her t-shirt. 

Biting her lip nervously, she quickly tucked them inside the sports bra that she wore, putting them out of sight before he turned back towards her from the first aid kit.

"Raise your arms, Beautiful." He said softly, and she did as he asked. He tightly bound her ribs for her, and helped her get the t-shirt back on. As he turned away from her, clearly intent on finding his own bed, she called his name. 

"Billy?" He turned and looked at her, one of his brows raised.

"Yeah?" _Wow, déjà vu..._ , she thought to herself. She looked at her cot, then back at him.

"Could you give me a hand?" He smirked at her a little, and came back over.

"Sure thing, shorty." He gently grasped her around the waist, high enough that she could get on top of the cot. She smacked him on the back of the head, hard.

"Don't call me 'shorty'!" She growled, but a smile threatened to break across her lips.


	5. Wild Things

It couldn’t get much worse. 

Billy tried to tell himself that, but he knew from past experience that it wasn’t true. _It can always get worse, especially when Umbrella’s involved._ He swung the Magnum around and took out an infected spider that looked like a giant black widow on crack, breathing a sigh of relief when it went down after the first shot. 

Turning the other way, he spotted Rebecca being forced backwards under an onslaught of mutants that shouldn’t exist outside of nightmares. Firing a few more times, he managed to cut some of them down before they got to her. He watched as her back hit the wall behind her, and a creaking noise drew his eyes upwards. 

_Oh. Fuck._ Almost as if in slow motion, Billy could see a beam from the ceiling start to fall towards her. He reacted before the thought really had a chance to process, and dashed across the room. As he reached her, he drew her small body down under the protection of his back and arms, and prepared himself to soon be in _a lot_ of pain. 

The beam hit him like a truck, the majority of the impact slamming across his shoulders. _That’s gonna leave a fuckin’ mark._ His breath rushed out of him, and he struggled to use his body to shield her. Becca was such a tiny little thing, the impact probably would have killed her. 

He heard her breath shudder out of her, and idly wondered if he’d failed to protect her as everything went hazy around him.

* * *

Rebecca tried to draw in some much needed breath, but the heavy male body above her wasn’t helping too much in that department. As dust and debris settled around them, she gripped his shoulder and shook.

“Billy? You alright?” No response. Frowning to herself, Rebecca shook harder. “Billy?! C’mon, you need to get up now…” He didn’t move a muscle. Worry began to eat away at her, and she had to swallow down the panic that began to infuse her. Distantly, she heard Chris’ voice.

“Rebecca? Billy?” 

“Over here!” She could hear some shuffling, and lots of cursing, as the pile of debris on top of them slowly began to dissipate. Rebecca wiggled her way around so that she could rest Billy’s head on her shoulder. Glancing over his back, her eyes took in for the first time the size of the beam that he had just saved her from. _Jesus Christ…_

Chris and Jill managed to get the two of them uncovered, their haste not only for Billy’s sake, but because the sounds of something trying to bust its way into the room could also be heard. Chris threw one of Billy’s arms over his shoulder while Jill repeated the action, and with Rebecca making sure to cover them, the small group quickly made their way through the door that Jill had been picking open before the collapse. 

As the couple gently laid Billy on a sofa that they found in the room, Rebecca made a quick scan to make sure there were no lurking baddies in there with them. The room appeared to be an office of some sort, decked out in the highest luxuries that were completely at odds with the school that it was found in. _This sure isn’t any faculty lounge that **I’ve** ever seen._ Jill’s thoughts seemed to echo her own.

“Umbrella and their love of hidden rooms…” She drawled derisively. Rebecca then turned her attention to Billy, who was still out cold. She didn’t blame him, after seeing the size of the beam that he’d been hit with. A blow from that probably would have _killed_ her. Detaching the portable med kit from her belt, she set about cleaning some of the blood off his forehead. _He must have hit it at some point during the collapse._

Chris and Jill made a cursory scan of the room while she was busy, and she could hear them mutter over a puzzle in the next door that they must have found. _Why do they always have to have a puzzle? Don’t these guys have anything better to do with their time, aside from creating horrible viruses?_

Rebecca decided to take a look at Billy’s back where the beam had struck him, just to see how much damage had been done. Gently lifting him as much as she could, she eased the long-sleeved black shirt off of him, which left him in a sleeveless grey undershirt. Rebecca had to bite back a giggle at the sight. _Now this is the Billy that I remember…_ As she eased the shirt fully over his head, his eyes blinked open slowly.

“Always knew you wanted to undress me… All you had to do was ask, Beautiful.” He mumbled out, trying to sit up. Rebecca rolled her eyes at the comment, but felt relief spread through her. If he was still making his smart-assed Billy comments, there couldn’t be that much wrong with him. 

She placed an arm along his back to help him into a sitting position, and attempted to pull the straps of his undershirt to the side so that she could see his back. He shot her an exasperated look that seemed to say _Why do it the hard way?_ and yanked the undershirt over his head and off for her. 

**_Billy – Age 16_ **

_He didn’t know how he let himself get talked into doing this shit. Billy glanced around the room, and heaved out a sigh. A friend of theirs was moving away, so a bunch of them had decided to throw her a party._

_This somehow led to all of them getting roped into playing Truth or Dare. Sure, they were a little old to be playing a kid’s game, but it wasn’t exactly a kid’s game with the way they were playing it. So he had to ask himself again, just how in the hell did he let himself get talked into this?_

_He glanced at the little redhead sitting on the floor to the right of the couch he was on. Oh, right. **That’s** how. He watched as she smiled at something that someone said to her, and had to fight a smile of his own. The girl was so fucking gorgeous, she had no idea. _

_Billy had wanted her the second he’d laid eyes on her. She was honestly the most beautiful creature he’d come across in his young life, and hadn’t tried to hide the fact that he thought so. Everyone in their little group of friends knew that he had a thing for her, including the girl herself._

_But to her, he was just her friend. It made him want to either cry or hit something, his manly pride preferring the second option. It was her turn to be called upon in the game, and Billy watched in interest. Truth, or dare? Knowing her, she wouldn’t back down from a dare. He loved the fire that she had in her._

_She called Dare, just like he’d known that she would, and he listened intently to see what they would make her do. She smirked softly as she waited to hear the verdict as well._

_“Dare, huh?” One of the girls said. She began smiling evilly, and Billy got a sinking feeling in his stomach, he wasn’t sure why. “I dare you to… make Billy happy!”_

_Billy’s eyebrow shot up as a whole slew of naughty images went through his mind. The girls in the group tittered and the guys began to laugh slyly. Wanting to give her a way out of the corner they had backed her into, he took a deep breath and prepared to be the funny good guy._

_“Breathe!” He commanded, knowing that everyone would laugh. It wasn’t far from the truth, anyways… Just being around her made him happy. He watched as she softly bit into her lip, and wanted to groan. Being the ‘good guy’ was going to kill him. His eyebrow rose as she slowly got up from the floor, and made her way over to him._

_Her round hips seemed to sway back and forth as she walked, and he was frozen at the glint that appeared in her gorgeous brown eyes. He leaned further back into the couch as she straddled his lap, her black skirt riding higher up on her thighs and drawing his gaze. He put his hands on the outside of her legs to steady her without really thinking, and felt her fishnet stockings rub against his palms as she shifted._

_The excited giggles coming out of everyone else were lost to him. All that he could focus on was the little smile on those full lips as she leaned closer to him, and the way that her little pink tongue snuck out to moisten her lower lip._

_The moment when her lips met his was quite possibly the most incredible thing that had ever happened to him. **Ever.**_

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca stared. It was the only thing that she could do. 

From the moment that Billy had yanked the undershirt off, she had been absolutely unable to pull her gaze away from all the sweaty, glistening male chest that it had revealed. _Holy mother of God…_

This was not good. Not at all. Clearing her throat, she stole a glance at Chris and Jill. They seemed busy with whatever puzzle Umbrella had left for them, so she turned her attention back to Billy… This time focused at his face. Who knew that he was in such good shape? Drawing in a quick breath to steel herself against teenage hormones that apparently had decided to make a come-back, she had him turn slightly for her so that she could get a good look at his back. 

Wincing at the bruising that was already as black as thunderclouds, she set about cleaning up the small abrasions as best she could without putting too much pressure on it. She worked steadily, the two of them sharing an oddly peaceful silence. She lifted her head as Chris called to them across the room.

“Might as well get comfortable… Looks like we’re stuck in here until we can get this damn thing figured out.”

* * *

Billy sighed over that delightful bit of news, and turned to where Becca was putting away her medical supplies. His back hurt like a royal bitch, but he was just glad that she looked to be alright. 

He frowned a little, sensing that something wasn’t right with her. It was almost like she was avoiding looking at him… and any time that she did look at him, her cheeks would get all pink. _What the hell?_

She walked toward him, her luscious hips swaying back and forth with the movement, throwing him into déjà vu. The last time he’d been so transfixed by a woman’s hips was…

“Hey, Becca…” Her pretty eyes met his, and her head tilted slightly to the side in question. A cocky smirk graced his lips.

“Let’s play Truth or Dare…”


	6. Not Just a Pretty Face

Rebecca stared at him, a frown pulling in between her brows. 

“Truth or Dare?” Her voice was disbelieving. “We’re stuck in a room, in the middle of a town overrun with people and creatures infected by the T-Virus, and you want to play a kid’s game?” He smirked at her, and leaned himself back against the couch where he rested, being careful not to touch the bruising on his shoulders. 

“Why not? You heard your pal… We may be here awhile. Might as well entertain ourselves.” Rebecca shook her head slowly, wondering why she had been surprised by it at all. If there’s one rule that applies to Billy, it’s _expect the unexpected_ … She sighed to herself, and sat on the couch beside him. 

“Chris,” She called over to the couple. “Do you guys need a hand with that puzzle?” He waved a hand in her direction without looking up at her.

“Nah, we’ll get it eventually.” Rebecca sighed again and turned to look at Billy, his smart-assed smirk still very much in place. 

“Alright…” She gave in. “But it isn’t like we’ll be able to do ‘dares’, really.” Billy seemed to think about that for a minute.

“How about we just stick to the ‘truth’ part of it, then? One person asks a question, and the other has to give a truthful answer.” Feeling like she was entering dangerous territory for some reason, Rebecca slowly nodded her head. Billy chuckled to himself a little, and Rebecca could almost picture him rubbing his hands together with glee at that moment. He leaned towards her on the couch, raising one eyebrow in question. Rebecca could feel her heart speed up at his closeness, and wanted to smack herself silly for it. _Note to hormones: **fuck off** , now is not the time!_

* * *

Seeing the look of reserve on her face, Billy decided to start off slowly. He had a million different questions that he wanted answers to, but they could wait until she relaxed a bit. _Start with something stupid…_

“What was the first thing that you can remember that you thought was beautiful?” Billy wasn’t sure why he’d asked that, of all things, but the simple question seemed to put her at ease a little. She bit her lip in thought, and he had to hold back a groan. _Now is not a great time to be acting like a teenager again…_ She suddenly smiled a sweet smile, and raised her gaze to him.

“My mother. There was this picture of my parents – from when they were teenagers and first dating – where my dad is looking at the camera and laughing, but my mom is looking at him. She’s got this beautiful smile on her face, and he’s all that she’s seeing right then… I always loved that picture.” Billy felt something warm in his chest, and was happy that she had such a nice memory. She looked up at him, and he couldn’t help thinking about just how beautiful those eyes were.

“My turn?” The sound of her voice jerked him out of his thoughts.

“Uh… Yeah.” She thought for a minute, and then smiled at him.

“What’s with the tattoo? I’ve always wanted to know.” He couldn’t help but grin and think of his own mother. 

“My mom had me when she was still kind of young, and growing up I never really had a dad around. For the longest time, it was just me and her. I mean, she’s the one that totally raised me. She taught me everything I know, really. So when I got older, I kinda wanted to do somethin’ for her, so I got a tattoo for her. That’s why it says ‘Mother Love’. She loved it, too, you know. Thought it was great.” Rebecca was grinning at him, and shook her head slightly. 

“Your mother must be one hell of a woman.” He laughed at that, and had to agree with her. 

“My turn.” He said. “Weirdest place you’ve ever eaten?” She laughed at that, and a soft look came upon her face.

“Up a tree.”

**_Rebecca – Age 17_ **

_She took a look around the room, and sighed to herself a little. She was over at James’ house with some of their friends, and pretty much everyone except her and James were drinking. It had been a long and tiring day before she’d gone over, and she wasn’t really in the mood for lots of company. Suddenly remembering the tub of sundae that they’d bought earlier, she turned to look at James._

_“Got spoons upstairs for that ice cream?” He nodded, and the two of them snuck away from the group to fetch the eating utensils. As he rummaged through the kitchen drawer for them, Rebecca sighed in relief. It was silent, now that they were out of the basement._

_“Here you go.” She smiled at him in thanks, and watched as a returning smile slowly crept across his handsome face. A frown then suddenly appeared between his brows. “Did you… want to take this back downstairs?” His voice sounded somewhat resigned._

_Rebecca thought of all the noise and people down there, and was shaking her head ‘no’ before she even realized it. James raised a brow at her, and she turned to look at the moon out the window to the backyard. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her._

_“I have a whim.” She suddenly announced to him, and saw him smile. “Will you indulge my whim?” She knew that he probably would; he’d never tried to hide the fact that he would do just about anything for her._

_“Of course.” He said, just like she’d known he would. Rebecca slid open the door leading to the backyard, and marched out in her bare feet. She could hear him following her. Tossing him a saucy look over her shoulder, she left him to carry the ice cream and began to climb the old tree in his backyard._

_He tossed her a look that clearly said ‘What are you doing?’, but still came to stand just below her at the base of the tree. She reached down and took the ice cream from him, and motioned with her head for him to follow her up. James climbed until he was resting on the branch just above her, and held the ice cream while she took a scoop of it on her spoon._

_“Ever eaten ice cream in a tree before?” She giggled. He laughed a little and shook his head._

_“Can’t say that I have, no.” While they steadily ate away at the ice cream, they talked quietly about a variety of things. The moon was high in the sky, providing some light, and Rebecca found herself noticing that its light seemed to tease out the blue of his eyes. He was leaning over her from the branch above, and her face was tilted up towards him._

_Rebecca couldn’t help but wonder to herself if he would try to kiss her. The moment was almost movie-perfect for it. Just as the thoughts crept through her mind, he leaned away from her a little bit. Feeling just a little disappointed, Rebecca had to admit that she’d known he wouldn’t try. James knew that she wanted a friend, and he was trying to be that for her._

_Not a lot of guys could claim that same sense of honour, in her experience._

**_Present Day_ **

“Ugh… Gross.” Rebecca scrunched up her face in disgust. “I did not need to know that the guy you lived with did that. Are you sure he didn’t have the hots for you?” Billy laughed at that.

“Nah, he was just a… special… one, that’s all. He actually had a girlfriend.” He watched as she shook her head with a rueful smile on her face. It was now his turn to ask a question, and he figured he’d go for the one he most wanted to know the answer to. _What the hell… No guts, no glory, right?_ He drew in a bit of a breath, and went for it. 

“So… My turn. You picked yourself up a boy toy or two?” She looked startled at the question, and her cheeks flushed pink. _‘Boy toy’? Really Could you be any more pathetic, man?_ Billy told his inner voice to shut the hell up, and waited for her answer. Her eyes darted away from his, and he didn’t know if that was a good thing, or a bad thing.

“Um, no… I don’t have one. Or two.” He told himself to breathe as a feeling of relief swept over him. _You know what this means?_ He asked himself. _She’s all mine._ Smiling silently, he watched as she squirmed a little under his gaze. _Fucking adorable._ She suddenly jumped up from the couch and took a couple steps in the direction of Chris and Jill. 

“You guys still having trouble with that? Want some help?”

* * *

Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief when Jill threw her hands up in the air in frustration over the puzzle. She needed to get some distance from Billy for a couple of minutes, or she was going to burst into flames. Crossing over to the doorway, she glanced curiously at what was stumping the duo. 

The sealed door was covered in elaborate carvings, with a niche in the centre of the door where one of four tablets would fit. The tablets each had a picture painted upon them: a horse, a lion, an ape, and a man. The top of the door had the carving of a lion with a woman’s head, and just below that were three suns on an arc. Below each of the suns was a roman numeral; ‘IV’ below the first sun, ‘II’ below the second at the top of the arc, and ‘III’ below the third sun.

“Evidently we have to put one of these four tablets into the niche, but I guess we’re supposed to figure out which is the right one.” Chris sighed. “I don’t get it, though. There are no words, no clues. So how are we supposed to figure it out?”

Rebecca ran her eyes over the carvings again, something familiar nagging at her brain. _Four, two and three… Suns on an arc… A horse, a lion, an ape, or a man…_ Suddenly, it all clicked for her. 

“It’s the man.” Chris and Jill turned to stare at her, and Rebecca could sense that Billy had come to stand just behind her left shoulder. 

“How do you know that? We need to be sure, you know. If we put in the wrong one, it might spring a booby trap.” Rebecca shook her head.

“It’s the man. I know that’s the right answer. See the carving at the top of the door? The lion with a woman’s head?” The other three all nodded. “That figure is the Sphinx, a sort of deity from the ancient Egyptians. She was well known for her riddles, and any who got them wrong were killed by her.”

“All the more reason for us to be sure we’re right…” Jill muttered. Rebecca continued on with her explanation. 

“There’s an old Greek legend, where Oedipus defeats the Sphinx by solving her riddle. She asks him, ‘Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be?’.” Rebecca pointed to the three suns, and the numbers below them. “See? Four, two and three. And the arc can represent the different stages of the day.”

“Okay…” Chris said. “So that seems to fit. But how do you know that the answer is the man? Even though we know the actual riddle now, it still doesn’t make sense to me.” Rebecca smiled.

“That was the great thing about Oedipus. He solved the Sphinx’s riddle properly. He told her that the answer to her riddle was ‘man’ – when we are babies, we crawl on all fours. At the middle of our lives, we walk on two legs. And in old age, we walk with a cane, which would be the ‘third leg’. Because Oedipus answered the riddle correctly, the Sphinx died, and the passage that she was guarding was open to him.”

“So,” Billy said roughly from behind her. “You’re saying that if we put the tablet with the picture of the guy in there, the door will open.” Rebecca nodded vehemently, and Billy shrugged his shoulders. “She’s the brain. I say we go with it.” Chris and Jill exchanged a look, and Jill carefully placed the tablet with the image of the man into the niche. A soft clicking sound was heard, and the door swung inwards. Rebecca smiled with delight, while Chris and Jill both looked impressed.

“What?” Rebecca asked indignantly. “I know more than just biochemistry, you know.” She pouted a little, and heard Billy laugh behind her. The four of them passed through the doorway, and discovered that it led to a hallway that forked in two different directions.

“Guess it’s time to split up…” Chris sighed. He turned to look at Billy. “You want the right, or the left?”

* * *

Billy glanced between the two directions, not being able to see too far down either one. He shrugged his shoulders, and looked at Becca. 

“What do ya say, Beautiful? Right or left?” She bit her lip a little, looking unsure. 

“Right?” Her voice sounded more questioning than decisive. 

“Guess we’ll take the right,” Billy said to Chris, jerking his thumb in that direction. “You and your lady take the left.” Jill nodded, and turned to walk down their hallway without further ado. 

“Good luck…” Chris said, before following her. Billy turned to look at Rebecca, who was staring down their own hallway. Running his hand down her back reassuringly, he contemplated it with her. 

“We’ll be okay, baby. We do good work together.” He mentally kicked himself for the pet name, hoping that she wouldn’t get huffy about it. It had just kind of slipped out without him knowing. 

“Yeah…” She said distractedly, apparently not even noticing his slip-up. She took a deep breath, and started to cautiously move down the dark passage. Billy checked how the ammo in his trusty Magnum was holding up, and moved after her. 

Nothing was gonna harm Becca while he was around. He’d make sure of it.


	7. He's Hit His Limit

The further they progressed down the corridor, the more eerily quiet it became. This, as well as the almost undetectable slope of the floor, told Rebecca one thing: they were slowly moving underground. The knowledge of this increased her nervousness, and she could feel goosebumps chase their way down her arms. She rubbed at them absently, and was startled a bit when Billy grabbed her arm to stop her movement.

Sending a surprised glance his way, she opened her mouth to question what he had stopped for. Before the words could come out, he was pulling some kind of material over her head. As her head cleared the material, she blew the few strands of her hair that had escaped her braid out of her face and glanced down at what she was now encased in.

She saw that he had slipped his long-sleeved shirt that he had been carrying in his hand on her, rather than putting it back on himself. Sliding her arms through the warm fabric, she questioned him with her eyes.

"You looked cold…" He grumbled, as if somewhat embarrassed by his action. He quickly turned to begin progressing down the corridor again, and Rebecca smiled softly to herself. That had been pretty… sweet… for a tough guy. Glancing to make sure his back was to her, Rebecca raised the neckline of the shirt to her nose. It smelled like spices and chocolate and that unexplainable scent that was just Billy, and she felt safe once again.

* * *

Billy was trying. Very hard.

There was no way that Becca could understand that even in the middle of all this dangerous chaos that they were in, all he wanted to do was take her to some dark corner and show her just how much she meant to him. Still.

It had almost killed him to see her go that last time. Never would he have thought that a tiny slip of a girl could become his whole world after only a few short hours. For three years, three long years, his mind had been filled with nothing but her. He had told himself again and again to just forget about her, to move on with his life like she had so obviously moved on with hers. And he almost had.

When his sources had told him that she was once again going back to Raccoon City, he almost couldn't believe it. The first thing he'd wanted to do was shake the girl for putting herself at risk again, but his second reaction to the news had been much stronger. Just when he'd decided to let go of her, she'd come tumbling back into his life. And there wasn't a chance in hell that he could give her up now.

Glancing backwards to make sure she was still following him, his attention was caught by the sight of her in his shirt. It seemed to swallow her smaller body up, making her almost look like a little girl playing in daddy's clothing. It kind of made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, not that he'd ever admit that to anyone. After all, he had an image to maintain.

"You coming, Beautiful?" He saw her jump, as if the sound of his voice had startled her out of some thoughts. She sped up her steps a little, catching up to him. He noticed with some amusement that she had to take two steps to every one of his.

"Why do you do that?" She asked him.

"Do what?"

"Call me 'Beautiful'…" She seemed genuinely confused, and he stared at her for a minute in shock before he answered her.

"…'Cause you are." She scrunched up her face as if she didn't believe him. _I'll think it again… She's fucking adorable._ Smiling a little, Billy was so focused on her that at first he didn't hear it. When Becca halted her steps and grabbed his arm tightly, he forced his mind back to the situation at hand.

A low rumbling noise was slowly getting louder, as if moving towards them. The closer it came, the more the floor beneath their feet shook. Billy glanced around desperately, but the walls of the hallway were smooth.

There was nowhere to hide.

**_Billy – Age 21_ **

_Absolute panic was trying to push its way into his brain. Billy had been walking home from taking in a movie with the cute girl he was dating, when suddenly it all went wrong._

_It began with her saying that she wasn't feeling well; her head hurt. Billy knew that she had some kind of brain problem, but didn't really understand the specifics of it. He asked her if she was okay, and she she said she was. It wasn't too convincing to him. They walked a little further before all hell broke loose on him._

_Suddenly, she felt her clutch at his arm as she slowly began to slide to the ground. Her face was pressed into her other hand, and her hair had become a curtain, making it impossible to see her expression. Billy quickly knelt down on the pavement to try and see what was wrong._

_He spoke to her, tried asking her questions, but her voice was coming out slurred and barely understandable. She insisted that the nature of her condition didn't need a hospital, that this happened all the time and she just needed to lay down somewhere._

_Having to trust her judgment, he scooped her up off the ground and carried her back to his home. Looking down at her, she was deathly pale and looked like she was losing consciousness. His thoughts were jumbled with the sharp edge of fear and panic, and that short walk home was the closest Billy ever came to praying to a god he didn't know if he believed in._

_'Oh please… Just let her make it home. She needs to be okay, I need her to be okay… Don't let her die, just let her make it home…'_

_The words ran like a litany through his mind, while he hoped beyond hope that he was doing the right thing by following her instructions, instead of taking her to a hospital. That was one of the first times Billy had ever been scared in his life._

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca stared in absolute shock. With all of the hideous monstrosities that she knew Umbrella was capable of producing, this one certainly took the cake. At one time, she was sure that it had been a man. Standing almost eight feet tall, the musculature structure was certainly human, if elongated, but the body was a mass of scars, stitches, and multi-coloured flesh. The mouth had been stitched completely closed, and sharp blades protruded from the wrists of its arms where hands should have been.

Rebecca wanted to weep for the human being that she was sure this creature had begun as. She was just as certain that they hadn't volunteered for such heinous experiments to be done on them. She grasped Billy's arm even more tightly. _How are you going to get yourself out of this one, girl?_

The figure in front of them came to a halt, and stared at them with dead eyes. Rebecca couldn't see any sense of human consciousness in them, and for her that made it all the more terrifying. Underneath her hands, she felt the muscles of Billy's arm go rigid.

"Okay, you ugly son-of-a-bitch…" He almost growled out. "Let's get this done." Panic welled inside of her as Billy yanked his arm away from her grasp. _There's no way he'll be able to beat that thing…_ Wanting only to help, she raised her gun and took aim for the head. The movement registered with the creature, and it lunged straight for her. Billy dove and pushed her to ground, an unexpected move that caused the creature to sail over-top of them, rather than dive right into them.  
Rebecca momentarily lost her breath as, for the second time that day, Billy's weight slammed into her. This time, he was up and moving within seconds, and fired a shot from his Magnum into the creature's shoulder. It was as if the bullet had been a fly, as unnoticed as it was. Billy continued to dodge the swinging blades while firing bullet after bullet into the thing, to no avail. That's when she got an idea.

Reaching into her med-pack on her hip, Rebecca surreptitiously pulled out a scalpel. Sliding against the smooth wall of the corridor, she prayed that the creature's focus would stay on Billy just long enough for her to do what she had to. Her heart almost stopped as the blade swung close enough to Billy's body to tear a long slash in the front of his undershirt, but she forced herself not to panic and continue with her plan.

Sneaking her way up behind the creature, she was almost to it when she saw the look of recognition and complete panic that passed through Billy's eyes. He knew what she was trying to do. Slowly dropping to her knees behind the creature, she slashed out with the scalpel and severed the achilles' tendon on both its legs. If she was right, and this had been a human man at one point, it should still hold such a weakness. Feeling the pain, the creature swung around to her as it began to fall to the floor. One of the blades slashed across her left thigh, creating a shallow but long slice through her pants and skin.

As the creature hit the ground, Billy fired directly into its face until his chambers were all empty. The two of them waited with bated breath to see if the creature was going to stay down or not. When it didn't so much as twitch, Rebecca heaved out a tired sigh.

* * *

That fool woman was going to get herself killed. His heart had nearly stopped when he'd noticed her sneaking up behind the fucked-up thing, knowing that she was about to do something incredibly brave but incredibly stupid. _Okay, so her idea had worked to take the thing down… but she could have gotten herself run-through with one of those damn blades!_ Keeping a wary eye on the body on the floor, he willed his pulse to slow down to a normal rate.

Moving over to Becca, he noticed the blood slowly seeping through her pants from the slash she'd received. Deciding not to wait for her objections, he just scooped her up off the floor into his arms, and started carrying her down the hallway. He could feel her nails dig into his shoulders, but continued on.

"Billy…" She said, trying to sound stern. "Billy, put me down. I can walk on my own." He sent her a glare as his answer, and silently kept moving. He wanted to get through this hallway and be done with it. He felt her glare right back at him, and it had the opposite effect of making him want to smile. It was like having a tiny kitten hiss at you. Keeping his hard look instead of giving into the smile, he spotted a small alcove ahead that they could duck into.

"God damn it, Billy! I said put me down!" She growled at him. There must have been something seriously wrong with him for the fact that he found her growling to be really hot. When he reached the alcove, he placed her on her feet so that she'd at least stop yelling. She put her hands on her hips and had to tilt her head back to scowl up at him. They stood there glaring at each other for a minute before she opened her mouth.

"I'm not some little girl, you know! I can take care of myself!" Without meaning to, he ran his eyes over her body. _Not some 'little girl' my ass._ That turned out to be a mistake, because it caused him to notice certain areas where she certainly _wasn't_ a little girl anymore. Clearing his throat to put his thoughts back on track, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. She seemed to have gotten his insinuation from his look, because her little hand balled into a fist and gave him a surprisingly powerful punch to his chest. She turned as if to walk out of the relative safety of the alcove and away from him. Billy felt himself snap.

Reaching out, he easily caught her and dragged her back to him. His mind had become a haze, and he had lost his control over himself. Slamming her against the back wall of the alcove, with his hand behind her head to protect it, he watched as her lips opened to yell at him again.

He pressed his lips down onto hers, and gripped her hip tightly with his free hand. He could feel her body still in shock, but it was only moments until her hands came up to fist in his torn undershirt and hold him in place against her.

_This is what heaven tastes like…_

* * *

Rebecca's mind was a swirl of confusion. Billy's large frame surrounded her, and she had never felt such a mixture of excitement and safety before. Wrapped up in him, she felt as though there was nothing that could reach her to hurt, nothing that could get past him to her. The feel of his body against hers, the taste of him on her tongue, had her heart beating so swiftly she was sure it was going to burst from the strain.

She didn't notice when she wrapped her fists in the material of his undershirt, nor did she register the fact that she had risen up on the tips of her toes in an effort to get closer to him. For three long years, her body had cried out to have him hold her, and now it rejoiced in finally knowing what it felt like. The last time he had held her in his arms had been just after pulling her from the hole she had fallen through. He had held her gently while she'd tried to calm her nerves and breathing, and hadn't complained over her weakness. That was the last time she had ever felt like this… Of course, back then, she'd been a mere eighteen years old and hadn't completely understood what she was feeling.

This was a whole new world to her. His arm came to wrap completely around the small of her back, and he lifted her closer to him so that they were pressed so tightly together, even air couldn't pass between them. Billy's lips broke away from hers, and they were both breathing harshly.

She could feel his breath fan across her face, and stared in shock into his eyes. She could see so many emotions there, when previously she had thought he was hard to read. She could could see the same shock as she felt, but also a wealth of other feelings. Confusion, lust, fear of rejection, as well as something else that she couldn't yet define.

Still staring at him, she shakily rose a hand to sweep her fingertips softly down his cheek. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the sound of an explosion reverberated down the corridor to them, and the ground trembled so hard that the walls began to crack and crumble.


	8. Crash and Burn

The ground shook again under them, and Rebecca grabbed onto Billy’s arm out of reflex to keep herself on her feet. _What now?_ She was getting so sick and tired of the constant nasty Umbrella surprises, though she had to figure that she should just be used to it by now. _Is this really what my life is going to consist of?_ She gave her head a mental shake, refusing to get pessimistic now. 

“What should we do, Billy? Stay or go?” As much as she’d grown up over the last few years, she wasn’t stupid enough to think that she suddenly had more experience at this than Billy did. Whatever he decided they should do, she knew that she could trust in his judgment. A hard look came to his face, as if he was already regretting what he was about to say. 

“We go.” Without a backwards glance at her, Billy began to cautiously make his way down the rest of the corridor, tremors running through the ground occasionally throwing them off balance as Rebecca followed him. 

It didn’t take long for them to reach the end of the corridor… Or, at least, what had become the end of the corridor. At least one of the explosions that had so rocked the area around them had resulted in a cave-in, blocking them from advancing any further. Rebecca turned to look at Billy when he let out a low growl of frustration.

“It’s gonna take for-fucking- _ever_ to clear a path!” He slammed a fist against some of the rock, jarring the pile and causing some smaller pieces to come tumbling down. The movement of the falling stones drew Rebecca’s eye upwards, revealing a small gap between the top of the pile and what was left of the ceiling. That looks just big enough for…

“Billy, give me a hand up.” He turned to her, still frowning, but with one brow questioningly raised. Motioning to the top of the cave-in with one hand, Rebecca figured that was explanation enough for what she had in mind. He followed her motion with his eyes, his expression tightening as he comprehended what she meant to do.

“Hell no.” He gritted out through clenched teeth, a hard look coming into his eyes. Rebecca prepared herself for a battle of wills. “Fuck that.” She sighed to herself. _That’s my Billy, eloquent as always._ She crossed her arms, and sent him a steely glare. Words weren’t needed, she knew that he would understand what she wanted. 

She could see him battle with the desire to keep her safe within his sight, and the desire to press onward to find out what was happening. She stayed silent while she watched him struggle with what he wanted to do, and what he knew he had to do. She could see it when he finally gave in. Sighing, he threw up his hands in defeat.

“Alright, alright. Come here, little girl.” Knowing it had been hard for him to give in, she chose not to fight the ‘little girl’ comment. Rebecca placed herself in front of him, facing the stones that she would need to hurdle to get to the top. Billy spun her around to face him, grasping the sides of her face in his rough hands.

“Now, you listen to me…” There was an edge to his voice that made Rebecca keep her mouth shut and let him talk. “You take any unnecessary risks while I’m not around to watch your back, and I swear to God I will kill you. Straight fucking murder. You got that?” Rebecca resisted the urge to smile, knowing that he was only concerned for her. _How did I never realize before that he’s just a squishy marshmallow under all that toughness?_

“Aye aye, Captain.” She drawled out cheekily, knowing that it would only antagonize him. He growled low in his throat, and grasped her around her waist to begin lifting her. Deciding to seize the opportunity to throw him off balance a little, Rebecca waiting until he had lifted her so that she was eye-level with him before she struck. 

Swinging her arms up to bury her fingers in his shorter hair, she took a chance and pressed her lips to his before he could know what she was doing. She felt his body still in shock this time, before she quickly pulled away from him and hoisted herself on top of the rock pile. Sending him a saucy look, she tried to contain her smile at the look on his face.

“See you later… handsome.” She winked at him before shimmying her way through the narrow space and onto the other side of the cave-in. _Rebecca Chambers, since **when** do you flirt with older men?_ , she could hear her inner prude chastising her. Mentally telling that same inner prude to fuck off, she enjoyed her small moment of daring. 

Glancing around her at the corridor – or rather, what was left of it – she sobered up her attitude to focus on the task at hand. _Get your head in the game, little girl._ Strangely, her internal voice of reason was _his_ voice.

**_Rebecca – Age 19_ **

_Rebecca laughed at the joke that the boy sitting across from her had just told, leaning forward to look at the textbook spread on the table between them. She was slowly getting back into the hang of civilian life, after the horrors of the Spencer Mansion the year before._

_She had decided to attend university again, not really knowing what else to do with her life now that the S.T.A.R.S. unit of Raccoon City was no more. Sadness threaded through her at the thought of her fallen Bravo team, but she tried to push it to the side._

_She still maintained contact with Chris and Jill, keeping one foot in the “let’s fuck over Umbrella” door. They deserved to pay for all they’d done, and pay dearly. As she bent further over the table, there was a soft jingling noise as the dog tags around her neck slid out of the scooped neckline of her t-shirt._

_The boy – and she really kept thinking ‘boy’, because all males seemed to pale in comparison to Billy now – reached out to lift the tags to have a closer look at them. Feeling angry that he had been so forward as to touch them, Rebecca quickly pulled them back out of his grasp._

_“William…” The boy murmured, almost to himself. “Whose are those? Your dad or something?” Rebecca wrinkled up her small nose in distaste. Billy was most certainly **not** related to her, in **any** way._

_“No…” She replied, on her guard. The last thing she wanted to do was give away that Billy was still alive somewhere. She stroked a thumb across one of the tags, feeling the etchings that made up the letters of his name. She had caught herself doing this on more than one occasion, when she needed some comfort. The boy had watched her movement, and a considering look came to his eyes._

_“Oh, I get it…” He said slowly, a small smile coming on to his face. “They’re your boyfriend’s, right? Shouldn’t he be wearing them?” Rebecca could feel her eyes cloud over, and any traces of happiness was gone from her face._

_“No, he… died.” She replied hollowly, a small part of her heart ripping at the statement as she carefully tucked the dog tags back under her shirt. Billy might as well be dead to her, because she would probably never see him again in her life._

_But there was so much about him that she still wanted to know._

**_Present Day_ **

Billy ran an agitated hand through his hair, already regretting having let her go off on her own. He knew she could handle herself, and he knew that she’d been by herself a whole bunch of times while the two of them had been running around the Ecliptic and the Arklay place… But that had been before. _Before she dug her way under my skin and wouldn’t leave again._

He forced himself to start clearing away rubble so that he could get through to follow her, not having seen another way around it. As he mindlessly heaved the debris out of his way, he tried to keep himself from worrying about her. Tried, but failed. 

_She’s just a tiny little thing, really… If she runs into another of those monsters, is she really gonna be alright against it?_ Knowing that he had to stop that line of thinking, or he would just drive himself nuts, Billy turned his thoughts instead to that sassy little wink she’d thrown at him just before she’d disappeared over the rubble. And that kiss. She’d shocked him, alright. Billy hadn’t expected her to take that kind of action on her own, which was why it’d surprised him so much. 

But really, when he thought about it, maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised. _She is twenty-one, after all… She’s probably had a boyfriend or two in the last three years._ Why that thought made him want to kill something, he didn’t really want to know. It’s not like it was any of his business if she’d dated while they’d been apart. It’s not like he had some kind of claim on her just because they’d spent a few hours together and killed some freaky-ass zombies. 

_It’s not like she belongs to you._ Getting madder by the minute, it was taking him much less time to clear a path through the rubble than it probably should have. The scrapes and bruising across his back from where the beam hit him burned with every movement, but the pain only served to fuel him on. 

As soon as there was a space big enough for his large frame, Billy pushed his way through, intent on catching up with Becca to make sure the damn woman didn’t get herself in any more trouble. 

The rest of the hallway was pretty destroyed on the other side of the pile. It definitely looked as if some kind of bomb had gone off. _Or something big smashed through here._ Billy had to remind himself that when it came to Umbrella, you couldn’t assume the normal. 

Falling back on old military instincts, he ran down the hallway with his trusty Magnum at the ready in case anything decided to pop out and try to kill him. He was just beginning to wonder whether or not he was getting close to her, when a very Becca-like scream echoed down the hallway to him.

Billy felt the blood in his veins turn to ice as he raced down the hallway at break-neck pace, his thoughts consumed with all the reasons why his Becca could be screaming.

* * *

Rebecca placed a shaking hand over where her heart was thumping wildly in her chest, upset with herself that a scream had been startled out of her by something that turned out to not be a threat. She cautiously approached the dehydrated corpse that had fallen out of the wall of the room she was in, being careful to observe for any movement or traps. 

There seemed to be some kind of book still clutched in the figure’s grasp, and she tentatively reached out a hand to take it. Rebecca wasn’t worried about the corpse suddenly coming to life, as he appeared to have died from starvation and dehydration rather than the T-Virus or any variation thereof. 

_Poor guy probably hid in here, hoping to get away from the virus victims, only to die from lack of food and water._ She gripped a corner of the book with her fingers and gently tugged it away from the dead man’s clutches. 

She had just sat herself upon the floor to see what was recorded in the book, when the door of the room came bursting inwards. Jerking her gun up out of reaction, she narrowly stopped herself from pulling the trigger upon realizing that it was Billy. He was breathing heavily, and covered in a sheen of sweat. _How in the hell did he get here so fast?_

She blinked in surprise up at him, while he scanned the room for danger. After glancing around and apparently not understanding what was wrong, he brought his eyes back to her own. 

“What?” He asked, sounding still slightly out of breath. “What happened? Why’d you scream?” The poor man looked terrified that something had happened to her, and Rebecca felt her heart melt a little at the thought. 

“The corpse fell out of a hidden cubby in the wall… It startled me.”

“Startled you.” She felt her lips twitch at his obvious indignation.

“Yes. Startled me.” He sighed harshly, and ran a hand through his slightly-mussed hair. There was a dark look in his eyes, and he plucked her up from the floor by her arms, gripping her tightly.

“I thought something was killing you!” He bit off. She really wanted to laugh, because the situation just seemed so odd, but figured he’d just think she was laughing at him and get upset. She raised a hand to cup his cheek, feeling stubble lightly scratch against her palm.

The fight seemed to sigh out of him, and he closed his eyes momentarily. Opening them again, he lowered her so that she could stand flat on the floor, rather than with her toes dangling in the air like she had been. Apparently, he decided to stop being upset and continue on with business.

“So, what’s that? Gonna read me a bedtime story?” He drawled, indicating the book still clutched in her hand. 

“I haven’t looked yet.”

* * *

Billy let go of his tight grip on her arms to let her open the book and read. Her brow creased in concentration, and he chose to look at her rather than read the book along with her. She’d probably tell him all about it anyways. 

He saw a glint out of the corner of his eye, and turned his head to check it out. Cautiously going over to the small desk that was pushed up against one wall of the room, he spied a key laying half-buried under some papers. Picking it up to inspect it, he saw a small etching of some kind of plant on the end of it. Billy pocketed it, knowing that curious things like the key usually came in handy when wandering around an Umbrella building. 

“Hmm…” Becca murmured from the other side of the room. Turning to face her, Billy raised a brow in question. “This is strange…” She continued, sounding like she was half talking to him and half talking to herself. “The mutagens recorded in here should be, well, impossible.” It was times like these, when she got all brainy, that he felt like an idiot.

“Care to dumb it down a little, Beautiful?” She blinked and glanced up at him, then bit her lip in concentration while she thought of how to explain it to him. 

“This journal records information on… well, to simplify it, a virus.”

“The T-Virus?” She shook her head at him, while he still tried to see what the point of it was.

“That’s just it. It’s like a whole new kind of virus… One that shouldn’t exist. Even worse than the T-Virus, by the looks of it.”

“If you ask me, a virus that turns people into zombies shouldn’t exist either, but it does.” He knew by the look on her face that there was some kind of complicated science thing that he wasn’t getting.

“You might have a point…” She conceded, after more thought. “If anyone could find a way to do the horrifically impossible, it’s Umbrella.” Tiredness settled over Billy all of the sudden, and every ache in his body seemed to get just that much worse.

“It’s got to be nightfall by now, Beautiful. What d’you say we find somewhere to hole-up in for a few hours and get some rest? You know as well as I do that if we’re gonna survive anything, we’ll need at least a few hours sleep behind us.” She nodded her head solemnly, and he turned to walk out the door. 

“Hey, look.” She called from the corner of the room. Looking behind him, he saw her pick up some kind of container.

“What’s that?” He asked.

“It looks like an ink ribbon… Probably goes with that old typewriter on the table over there.” Billy shot her a confused glance.

“What the hell would we need one of those for?”


	9. Dream Time

They had finally managed to find a lounge-looking room that was zombie-free. Billy didn’t even _want_ to know how much time they had spent in just trying to find a good place to bunk down in for a few hours… He felt so exhausted and sore that his brain just didn’t want to work properly anymore. 

“Billy…” He blinked away his sleepiness at the sound of her distressed voice. 

“Hmm?” He watched distractedly as she bit her lip, somehow almost mesmerized by the sight of those tiny little teeth pressing into the plump flesh. All of a sudden, he remembered how those soft lips had felt against his own earlier in the hallway. Remembering the feel of her lips led to remembering the way he had pressed her whole body tightly to his, every delicious curve of her under his hands. Suddenly, he realized that she had been talking to him, and now was staring at him with a frown. “What?” He asked belatedly.

“I said there’s only a couch in here to rest on. You take it; I want to check your back anyway.” He was shaking his head before she had even finished.

“No. You take the couch. The floor’s good enough for me.” That pout that he’d recently discovered he was weak to appeared on her face, and he had to turn his eyes to look at the wall behind her so that he wouldn’t give in.

“Billy. You’re the one that’s injured!” He mutely shook his head, and still stubbornly refused to look at her. “Sleep on the fucking couch!” His eyes whipped back to look at her face, startled by that kind of cursing coming out of her. It was kind of… hot.

“Alright, alright.” He moved over to the couch, and turned his body away from her so she could easily see his back. He whipped the torn undershirt over his head, grimacing in disgust at how filthy it had quickly become. _Ah, well. Zombie killing’s always gonna be a messy job._

He involuntarily flinched at the first touch of her fingers. As gentle as she was trying to be, it still hurt like a mother fucker. After that first touch, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to keep totally still while she cleaned the scratches. He started to focus instead on the feel of her fingertips skimming over his naked back, and other thoughts started to pop into his mind. Until the smell, that is.

“What the hell is that?” Billy wrinkled up his nose as he felt her placing a cloth that was coated in some kind of liquid over the bruising across his shoulders. He could almost sense the rolling of her eyes as he tried to identify the musty smell of whatever the hell it was that she was using. He heard her sigh before she answered him. 

“Witch Hazel astringent. It’s very effective for deep bruising.” 

“You learn that at your fancy school, too?”

“No… From my mother.” She didn’t say much more, and Billy decided not to ask. He had to secretly admit to himself that the coolness of the cloth felt pretty good. After a short silence, she spoke up again. “You’ll need to sleep on your stomach, I think.” He chuckled to himself, a naughty thought already forming in his mind. He waited until he heard her put her medical stuff away before answering.

“Can do…” He drawled out, before twisting to grab her with one arm around the waist. He flipped her so that she was trapped underneath him, and rested his face into the sweet curve of her neck. _How do women always smell so good?_

* * *

Rebecca stilled in shock, the whole thing having gone so fast. She tried to drum up some proper outrage, but couldn’t seem to manage it. It had been a long, terrifying day and she just couldn’t bring herself to care about propriety. She needed him close. Jill and Chris were god-knows-where, she was once again embroiled within a hellish world of Umbrella’s making, and she had no guarantee that any of them would live to see another day. _Fuck being proper. I just want to be held._

She brought her small arms up, wrapping them gently around Billy’s lower back. She felt him relax as he sensed her acceptance of the position, the muscles in his back slowly losing their tension. He nestled his face closer to her neck, and she could swear that she heard him sigh in contentment. _He’s just so damn cute, for a big guy._ He wasn’t as heavy as she was expecting, and Rebecca soon realized that he was resting most of his weight on his elbows to spare crushing her under him. _What a gentleman…_ She giggled to herself.

Closing her eyes, sleep came to Rebecca sooner than she would have guessed.

**_Billy – Age 21_ **

_He was excited, that was for sure. He’d just gotten his old car back into working order, and was eager to be driving around. That’s why, when Heather called, he had no problem driving two hours with his girlfriend to go and pick her up._

_He glanced at the redhead beside him, and took a hand off the wheel to grip her thigh. She smiled at him, and they continued to enjoy the heavy metal band that was playing on the stereo. As he came to the off-ramp for the highway, Billy put both hands back on the wheel to deal with the wicked curve in the road._

_They were part way into the turn when all hell broke loose. They heard a loud bang, and the ass end of the car started to swerve. Just fucking great. As he struggled to maintain control of the car, the blown tire threw them towards the ditch. The car hit the ditch with a harsh impact, the force of it threatening to flip the car completely over. Billy struggled with the wheel, trying with all his might to keep that from happening._

_He was too preoccupied with getting control of the damn car to think much of anything. He managed to get the car back up out of the ditch, but right into the path of an oncoming tour bus full of people. He hit the gas, the rim of the blown tire grinding heavily against the pavement of the road. Avoiding the bus, he got them away from the off-ramp and safely to the side of the highway and out of danger._

_As the car came to a jerking halt, every curse word that he knew was going through his mind. He gripped the wheel still in both his hands, his knuckles turning white with the pressure._

_“Are you okay?” His girlfriend asked him. Her voice was a little shaky, and he cursed himself all over again for the fact that she had been in danger._

_“No.” He ground out between clenched teeth._

_“I didn’t ask if the **car** was okay,” She retorted with some fire back in her voice. “I asked if **you** were okay.” He sighed, trying to expel some of his anger at the fucking car in order to answer her. He deliberately forced his voice to a gentler tone._

_“Yeah, I’m okay.”_

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca woke slowly, finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings. She was laying on her side, and a pressure around her stomach felt as though she was strapped down to something. Groggily blinking her eyes open, she slowly moved a hand down to check what was holding her at her waist. 

What her fingers encountered was thick and muscled, and… _under my shirt?_ Waking up a bit more quickly now, Rebecca discovered that in sleep her and Billy had both turned onto their sides. And apparently, at some point during the night, Billy’s arm had somehow snuck around her waist to hold her tightly to him. She could feel his hot breath puffing against the back of her neck, and his rough palm scraped pleasantly across the soft skin of her stomach under both his long-sleeved shirt and her t-shirt. _Sneaky hands, Billy._

Rebecca smiled to herself. In his arms she felt… safe. Protected, cherished, and wholly loved. It was the first time she had ever woken up with such a sensation. She tried to surreptitiously roll over so that she could see his face, but the moment she moved Billy instinctively tightened his hold on her. _It’s as if he wants to keep me from going somewhere…_ She decided to lay there for a few moments longer and enjoy the feeling. Right at that moment, there were no virus victims, no genetically mutated monsters, no death traps and puzzles, and no Umbrella. Nothing but the two of them. 

_I’m going to be so lonely when he leaves again…_

* * *

Something smelled wonderful. Like honey and violets and maybe some kind of apple. Billy nuzzled his face in closer to the scent, his mind still foggy with sleep. He tightened his arm around what he instinctively knew was a soft female waist, and rubbed his palm across smooth skin. _Must be dreaming…_ It had been so long since he’d had a woman to wake up beside. After meeting _her_ , not just any woman would do for him anymore. 

“Billy…” It was _her_ voice. He refused to open his eyes, knowing from past experience that as soon as he did she’d disappear. “Billy, we should get up…” Her voice was more persistent than it usually was in his dreams.

“No.” He grumbled, and pulled her even tighter to him as he felt her try to squirm away. Her movements were rubbing some nicely curved areas of her body into some very interested ones of his, so like hell was he going to let her get away. It was when he felt the puncture of sharp nails into his forearm that his eyes snapped open. “Becca?” He mumbled, his foggy brain unbelieving that dream-Becca was still laying there with him. She cheekily waved a hand at him, looking like she was trying to suppress a grin.

“Morning. Mind letting me get up? We have some information to collect. Oh, and in case you forgot, we’re all snuggled down in an Umbrella death trap right now.” Her tone was teasing, and he struggled to conceal the happy smile that wanted to appear on his face. Billy didn’t let her go for a long moment, wanting to see if she’d try to struggle away or not. She didn’t seem to be bothered by his arm around her waist… Glancing down at that arm, Billy realized exactly where he had put it in his sleep – namely, under her shirt. _Jesus… I’m lucky I still **have** an arm…_

Letting her go, he rose and pulled his tattered undershirt back over his head. She had swung her legs so that she was sitting on the edge of the couch, his shirt that she still wore hanging loosely around her small frame. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but before any words came out there was a small thud from the other side of the room. They both whipped their heads in the direction the sound had come from, guns instinctively coming up and to the ready. 

Billy soon saw that a book had fallen from one of the shelves, and he could see something had been placed in the space behind it. Rebecca cautiously rose and went to see what it was. She came back over to him, what looked like a photograph clutched in her tiny fingers. 

“What is it?” He asked.

“I’m not too sure… This photo only shows a young boy.” She tilted the picture, which looked older, and he saw the image of a boy about ten years old glaring at the camera. He was somewhere outdoors, a strange archway visible behind him. Billy turned his head to see Becca frowning down at the photo.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, sensing that there was something going on in that logical mind of hers.

“…I’m not sure. But there’s something very familiar about this boy…” She distractedly placed the photo in her pocket, but the frown between her brows told him that she was still thinking hard about it. 

Together they sat down to form as much of a plan as they could for what to do next. Of top priority was to try and establish some kind of contact with Chris and Jill again. Billy couldn’t help but notice that while Becca took place in the conversation, her mind was still focused on that photo in her pocket. 

_I wonder…_


	10. A Re-Run?

Rebecca inwardly sighed. Their day had just begun, and already she wanted nothing more than to lie down again. _Don’t be such a wimp, Rebecca. Suck it up, Princess._ Billy had been leading the way through Umbrella’s underground facility for a while now, and she was content to just let him keep leading. It wasn’t as though she would have any better idea of where they were headed. 

They’d just entered yet another ransacked Umbrella office when the radio on her shoulder crackled to life. Shooting a surprised glance at Billy, she eagerly punched in the button on the side to give it a shot.

“Chris? Jill? Can you read?” She held her breath and had to resist the urge to cross her fingers in hope that it would go through. Rebecca jumped almost a foot in the air when Billy’s large hand gripped her shoulder from behind. _How can such a big guy move so quietly?_ She had almost given up hope on getting any response from Chris or Jill when the radio crackled again.

“… there?” Chris’ voice was faint through the speaker, but it was the most communication they’d had in a long while and Rebecca was going to take that as a good sign.

“Chris!” She remained where she was standing, afraid that any movement would lose the signal again. “Are you two okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. You guys?”

“We’re fine too. Any new info?” Rebecca bit her lip in concentration as the radio’s connection flickered again. 

“…holding tanks. I don’t think we can…” Rebecca frowned as Chris’ voice continued to fade in and out, the bits she could hear not making much sense on their own.

* * *

Billy wasn’t getting too much out of the half-conversation either, so he decided to scope out the room while Becca kept at trying to get info. There wasn’t much to the room they were in except some beat-in old metal filing cabinets and a desk that was pretty much a plank of wood across some shelves. _You can bet your ass that this wasn’t some higher-up’s office. Not fancy enough for those drama queens…_

It was as he rifled through the filing cabinet on the left of the room that he first noticed it. A glimmer of something shiny caught his attention from the corner of his eye, and Billy went digging deeper into the drawer of the cabinet to see what it was. He’d learned back on that train ride from hell that pretty much anything sparkly was gonna come in handy later. Feeling his fingers wrap around something smooth, he lifted his arm back out of the deep drawer to see what his prize was. He sneered in disgust when he saw that it was a fake eye. A fake eye that had probably actually been in someone’s head not too long ago, as it was still kind of slimy. _Sick._

Grudgingly putting the fake eye in one of his pockets, Billy continued to poke around the room. After pushing a half-collapsed bookcase to one side, he hit paydirt. A shotgun hung from two pegs on the wall, and the sight was a beautiful one, as far as he was concerned. 

“Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” At the sound of his voice, Becca’s attention shifted from the radio to him, her finger still absently depressing the button. 

“What is it?” Her voice was tinged with hope, and he couldn’t really blame her. Grinning at her, he reached his hand up to grab the gun.

“Shotgun!” He declared triumphantly. Becca lowered her hand away from the radio just as his fingers wrapped around the barrel of the gun. The radio crackled again, followed by Jill’s frantic voice coming over the line.

“…that up! I repeat! Do NOT pick up that shotgun!” But it was too late. By the time Billy had heard Jill’s warning, he’d already lifted the gun out of its brackets on the wall. There was a faint clicking sound, and he backed away from the wall with a sinking feeling in his gut. 

He felt Becca’s fingers grip the back of his undershirt tightly, and his eyes remained on her face while she glanced around the room fearfully. The floor began to rumble under their feet, and Billy heard a loud scraping sound from up above them. He watched in shock as large spikes descended from the ceiling, and somehow seemed to be moving closer to them. 

“Billy…” Rebecca’s voice was on the edge of hysteria, while she pressed her shaking body closer to his. “Is it just me, or is the ceiling getting closer?!” He wrapped an arm around her waist and gripped her tightly for a moment, staring at the impending doom above them. Making a decision, he let her go again.

“Becca, look at me.” She turned wide eyes up to meet his, and the sight almost broke his heart. “There has to be some kind of off switch or something. We’ve gotta search the room and find it, that’s all.” He could see her swallow nervously, but she nodded her head.

“Okay…” She breathed, before they each darted away to frantically search the room for hidden switches.

**_Rebecca – Age 19_ **

_She was glad it was over. Rebecca and the people she had been rooming with since returning to university had just thrown the biggest, loudest, most barely-in-control party that she’d ever experienced. Sure, she’d had fun… But now she was glad it was over so that she could go to bed and sleep._

_In fact, she was just about to do that when she heard a knock on her bedroom door. Sighing, she decided she’d better open it just in case. As she opened her door she saw her roommate, Amanda, holding a hand over her mouth. Amanda sped past her to Rebecca’s en-suite bathroom without saying a word. That was odd…_

_Deciding to follow her into the room, as Amanda had left the door open, the shorter girl was leaning over the sink with her hand still over her mouth, shaking. Rebecca frowned and wondered what exactly was going on._

_“…’Manda?” She asked tentatively. In the mirror she saw Amanda raise her head, looking like she was on the verge of tears. “What’s wrong, honey?” Instead of verbally answering her, Amanda pulled her hand away from her mouth. Rebecca stared at her split lip a moment in shock. It was then that she noticed Amanda’s clothing was in disarray._

_“I’m going to fucking KILL him!” She growled out. “What happened?!”_

_“We… We went up to my room after everybody else was gone.” Her voice was shaking, and the tears began to fall. “He… He wouldn’t…” Amanda struggled to draw in breath around the tears. “And I told him to stop… but he wouldn’t! And he hit me…” Rebecca was seeing red. Gently gripping Amanda’s elbow, she led the poor traumatized girl to sit on the edge of her bed._

_“Listen to me, Amanda.” She waited until her watery green eyes were focused on Rebecca’s own. “Where is he now?”_

_“I don’t… I struggled and pushed him away and I ran straight here…” Rebecca reasoned that meant the bastard was still in the house, probably too drunk or stoned to know that his life was about to end._

_“You’re going to lock this door behind me.” Amanda’s eyes widened in fear. “You’re not going to open it for **anyone** other than me, got it?”_

_“But… He’s bigger than you! He weighs more than you!” Her voice was fearful._

_“That’s never stopped me before.” Rebecca grit out, as she slammed her bedroom door behind her. She marched straight down the hall to Amanda’s room, but the door was open and the room was empty. She stomped down the stairs to the main floor, and found him in the living room._

_“Get your shit and get the hell out of my house.” Her voice was quiet, but filled with deadly intent._

_“Yo… She didn’t explain it right…” He tried to reason. Rebecca took several threatening steps closer to him._

_“Get. The fuck. OUT!” She raged. He came closer to her, obviously trying to intimidate her with his taller frame. It wasn’t working._

_“Yo, just back off of my business, you dumb ho!” He screamed in her face. Rebecca decided she was done playing around with him. She punched him in the face, before twisting one of his arms behind his back. She used that to leverage him towards the front door._

_“Make one small move I don’t like,” She forced his arm further upwards and took satisfaction in the cry of pain he let out. “And I will snap your fucking arm.” She pushed him out the front door, tossing his shoes and coat out at him. “Now get the fuck off my property.”_

_Once the door was securely bolted, she picked up the phone to call the cops. As the phone rang, she spotted Amanda timidly coming down the stairs out of the corner of her eye. Opening up one arm in invitation, Rebecca felt her heart break as the traumatized girl rushed into her embrace._

**_Present Day_ **

It was hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. Rebecca frantically pitched objects of the room around her as she searched for a hidden switch that she was beginning to suspect didn’t exist. 

“Billy, I can’t find anything!” She watched as he ran a hand through his hair in frustration, a low growl coming from his chest. 

“Fucking hell!” He yelled. Rebecca had to admit that she was scared. After everything that the two of them had been through together, she didn’t want to end it by being flattened into a pancake. She started toward Billy, and noticing the movement he turned his attention to her.

“Billy…” Her lips trembled slightly from fear, and she could see that same fear reflected in his eyes. _Is this really going to be the end for us?_ , she wondered. She decided to herself that if it was indeed the end for them, she was going to die doing what she wanted. Reaching up to frame his face between her palms, she pulled his lips down to her own.

* * *

Billy wasn’t shocked over her move this time. He could understand the reasoning that had gone on in her head, and knew exactly what she was feeling. He wrapped one large arm around that tiny waist of hers to draw her closer, and felt her slide her arms around his neck. His other hand gripped his shirt where it rested at the small of her back, and he forced himself to concentrate on the feel of her underneath him rather than the death slowly coming from above. Her lips pulled away from his for some much-needed air, but he kept his strong grip on her body to keep her close. 

“Becca, I…” There was a clanking sound from the doorway, and they turned to see a heavy metal gate being lifted by Chris. They dove out of the doorway just in time, as the spiked ceiling ended its slow movement and instead crashed the rest of the way to the floor. They hit the floor in the hallway hard, Billy cradling Becca’s body with his own to soften the impact for her. He looked up when he heard Jill chuckle.

“Déjà vu…” She said. Becca sent her a questioning look, and Jill responded in two words. “Spencer Mansion.” That seemed to be enough of an answer for Becca, even if he didn’t really get it. Jill helped pull Becca to her feet, and Chris held out a hand to help him back up. Chris smirked a little before he spoke.

“Gotta say, I expected to find you two in more of an ‘oh shit I’m about to die’ position when we got there.” He drawled wryly. Billy smirked back at him.

“Who says that wasn’t?”


	11. Laws of Possession

Billy wasn’t sure how many rooms the four of them searched before they found it. He’d just started to give up hope of making any progress when Chris had unexpectedly found what he was looking for.

“God damn it!” Chris burst out as they found yet another locked door that couldn’t be forced open. “This one’s locked too.” 

“What’s the carving on it?” He asked Chris, though he was pretty sure it wouldn’t match the key in his pocket yet again. Chris let out a frustrated growl as he turned to check the image. 

“Some kind of plant.” Hope fluttered briefly in Billy’s chest. He moved over to the door to check it out himself.

“Fuckin’ right!” The carvings matched. He felt some satisfaction when the lock clicked open at the turning of the key. Chris and Billy shared an understanding nod as they both raised their guns to the ready. Billy kicked the door in, and both men moved quickly into the room to scan it for danger. Aside from a handful of zombies that were easily dispatched, there didn’t appear to be any problems. Jill and Becca followed them in, guns at the ready as well, until they saw for themselves that the room was clear. Becca let out a tired sigh as she kicked the door closed behind them. 

“Well,” Jill began in a resigned voice. “I guess we keep searchin’.” The whole ‘search for evidence’ routine was starting to get _really_ old, as far as Billy was concerned. _I hate Umbrella, I hate Umbrella, I hate Umbrella…_ The words ran through his mind on replay as he starting tossing his corner of the room looking for evidence.

* * *

Rebecca knew how frustrated Billy was getting by how tense the muscles in his back were as he pitched objects about the room. She bit her lip, and contemplated just how she could get him to calm down a bit. 

“Billy.” She called from her corner of the room. With a frustrated growl that everyone could hear, he turned his attention to her. 

“What?” He asked tiredly. She aimed a level look at him, and didn’t say a word. He stared back at her for a moment, but seemed to understand what she was silently telling him. He wiped a hand over his face before he let out a deep breath. “I know, Beautiful.” He went back to his ‘investigating’ at a calmer pace. Jill nudged her in the side and leaned close to whisper to her.

“He gets it without you saying a word?” She asked quietly, disbelief in her voice. Rebecca shrugged, but felt the heat of a blush tinge her cheeks. 

“We went through a lot together on the Ecliptic Express, and in the Arklay facility. We just kind of… knew what the other was thinking, after awhile. I guess that didn’t really go away.” Her blush grew as Jill smirked at her. “Shut up.” She hissed. 

Their continued searching in the room produced nothing. It was a frustrating process, and by the end of it Rebecca and Billy’s temperaments had undergone a reversal; Billy seemed to be resigned to the lack of information, whereas Rebecca felt like punching something. She supposed that it was her turn to be silently calmed down, as most of her anger deflated when Billy quickly kissed her on the forehead as they prepared to move on to another room. 

Just as she was about to leave, a framed picture on the wall caught her eye. Moving closer, Rebecca saw that it was a portrait of a little boy. She knew instinctively that it was the same boy from the photograph that she and Billy had found earlier. She stepped up to it, tentatively stretching out a hand to trace the lines of the boy’s face. _He is so familiar… But why?_

That thought was her last before the ground fell away from beneath her.

* * *

Billy felt the ground tremble beneath his feet, and heard a short scream escape Becca from behind him. By the time he had whipped his body around, there was a large hole in the floor and she was nowhere in sight. His body felt as though it was moving in slow motion as he ran towards the hole where she had disappeared. In the back of his mind he registered that someone was screaming her name, but was unaware that it was his own voice crying out in agony. His knees hit the floor at the ragged edge of the hole, and he strained his eyes to peer down into its darkness. 

“Becca!” He screamed. He waited with held breath as the echo of his own voice was the only answer he got. Chris and Jill had run back over to where he was, a stricken look on both their faces. 

“Did she fall down there?!” Jill asked, a panicked edge to her voice. Billy held up a hand, motioning for her to keep quiet. He knelt there and tried to listen for her sweet voice over the sound of his pounding heart. _Come on, Becca… Call to me, baby. I can’t save you if you don’t call to me._ He heard a faint noise from below them, and held himself completely still as he listened for it again. He didn’t move, he didn’t speak, he didn’t even breathe. 

“Billy!” The cry was faint, but it was enough for him. 

“Hang on, Becca! I’m coming to get you!” He called back down to her. He whipped his head to where Chris and Jill knelt. “Either of you have a flashlight?” Chris produced one, and Billy didn’t hesitate to lean his body over the edge to try and scope out what was below them. In the flashlight’s beam, he could see that there was another floor with an identical hole in it to the one he was currently hanging from. Tucking the flashlight in the back of his jeans next to his trusty Magnum, Billy prepared to jump through the hole to the floor below. 

“What the hell are you doing?!” Chris burst out. “You’ll get yourself killed!” Billy shot him a determined look. 

“I’ve got to get to her quickly, and straight down seems to be the fastest route to me. You’ve got a better suggestion, let’s hear it.” He could see Chris grit his teeth, the other man knowing that this was the best way to save her but not wanting to admit it. 

“Just don’t get yourself hurt or killed. Jill and I will work on finding another way down.” Chris seemed to hesitate. “Are you sure you can pull her up out of that hole?” Billy clenched his jaw as he prepared to leap down. A bitter smile touched his lips.

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” With that, he took a deep breath, and jumped. 

**_Billy – Age 19_ **

_Billy shut the door behind him while tucking his dog tags under his shirt. He was headed out to role call, but luckily his place was just walking distance from the base. As he reached the end of the driveway, a strange man was standing there waiting for him._

_“Are you William Coen?” The man asked. Billy stared at him for a moment as he wondered just who the fuck it was that wanted to know._

_“Yes…” He replied cautiously, while his muscles tightened into readiness. He didn’t like the look of the guy, and had a bad feeling in his gut. The man smiled at him, like they were friends or something._

_“I’m your father.” The man replied. Billy looked him up and down with hate in his eyes. He knew all about his ‘father’. His ‘sperm donor’, as he liked to mentally refer to him, had been an abusive son-of-a-bitch to Billy’s mother and apparently had tried to kidnap him several times when he was a child. Eventually his mother had found someone else, and he’d become more of a father to Billy than his ‘real’ dad ever had. The man was still looking at him as if he expected some kind of reply. Well, Billy would give him one, alright._

_“No, you’re not.” He spit out venomously. “My father lives in Winnipeg. You’re no one to me.” Billy pushed past the man without another word, and headed to the base for his role call._

_Billy knew exactly who he was in life; just because this man showed up, saying he was his father, didn’t mean that there was going to be some kind of touching father-son moment. He’d grown up to be confident in himself, to believe in what he could achieve with his own two hands. He didn’t need his ‘real’ father’s love to feel like something special. He’d grown up his whole life without it, and didn’t need it now._

_The only things he needed in life, he could get for himself._

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca’s fingers were going numb. 

As she had fallen, she’d somehow managed to snag a thin piece of steel that was sticking out at the edge of one of the holes. She didn’t know how many floors she had fallen through, and she worried that Billy wouldn’t be able to get to her in time. The more that she thought about it, the more she wondered whether or not it was just her fate to be constantly falling through holes in the floor and relying on Billy to come save her. The same thing had happened in the Arklay facility, and Rebecca could still remember the comforting feel of Billy gathering her up in his arms as he hoisted her out of danger that time. 

Back then, she’d been younger and still unsure as to whether or not she could trust this escaped felon. But as hesitant as she’d been about Billy, at that time she’d still instinctively called out for him to save her. And after he’d pulled her to safety, he’d cradled her in his lap for a moment as she’d tried to calm her nerves. She’d never had that kind of comfort before, let alone from someone she was supposed to be arresting, and she remembered that Billy had looked a little confused and uncomfortable at the time. Maybe he had been just as unfamiliar with giving comfort to someone as she had been in receiving it. 

Her fingers slipped on the piece of steel a little, and a quick jolt of panic went through her. She wasn’t going to be able to hold on much longer. _Oh please, Billy… Please hurry._ There was darkness all around her, completely obliterating any details of where she was. Her feet hung uselessly in the air, and every unintentional sway of her body compromised her precarious hold on the piece of steel. Rebecca knew that, logically, it wasn’t going to take much for this to be the end of her. _It’d be nice if I could go five minutes without having some kind of crisis in this place…_ She heard a loud thud from above, and the floor that she was clinging to vibrated slightly under her hold.

“…Billy?” Her voice was tentative, caught between hope that it was him and fear that it was some Umbrella monster going bump in the night.

“I’m here, baby.” Rebecca sighed out a breath of relief as his handsome face swam into her view and his large hand gripped strongly around her wrist. “Ready?” His voice was determined, and she felt giddy that he’d made it in time.

“God yes!” She answered. Her body felt weightless as he hauled her out of the hole and into his lap. Rebecca tossed her arms around his neck and clung to him tightly. “I wasn’t sure you were going to make it in time…” Billy squeezed her around her waist, and used the end of her braid to pull her head back to look at him. 

“I knew I’d make it in time.” He said with confidence. Rebecca smiled and shook her head slightly. 

“How are you so self-confident?” She asked. “I really envy that.” She wondered at the cloudy look that came to his eyes, and his answer was a little terse. 

“Lots of practice.” Gathering his cheeks between her palms, Rebecca drew his head down to hers for a reassuring kiss. _I’m alive..._ She thought to herself. _I’m alive and in Billy’s arms._

* * *

Billy broke the kiss to reach for the radio on her shoulder. Depressing the button, he thought he’d try and hail Chris or Jill to reassure them that Becca was alright. 

“Chris? Jill? Do you read?” There was a moment of some static before Chris’ voice came over the line.

“I take it if you’re using the radio you found her one way or another. Good or bad?” Chris was obviously trying to cover up the fear in his voice, but Billy could still hear it. 

“Good. I got to her in time. Where are you two at?” Billy could hear Jill’s relieved sigh before Chris’ voice came back on.

“We’ve managed to get down one floor, but we’re having trouble finding a way to the next one. How many floors did you have to go down?” 

“Four.” Chris swore at his answer, and Billy smiled at that.

“Okay. I don’t like the looks of what we’re finding, and I don’t want the four of us separating again. You and Rebecca stay where you are, and we’ll make our way to you.” Chris cut the connection, and Billy decided he didn’t mind taking a break and staying put. 

His body was shaking from almost losing her. Gathering Becca close to him again, he idly toyed with the band holding the end of her braid. It came loose, and he used his fingers to spread her hair free from being confined. She hummed appreciatively, and nuzzled her face into his neck.

“That feels nice…” She sighed. As her soft hair ran through his fingers, Billy couldn’t help but notice how different she looked with it longer. When he’d first met her, the short pixie look that she’d sported had looked cute on her. But, it had also seemed to highlight her young age at the same time. 

He glanced down at her now, noticing that her eyes were closed as she enjoyed his touch. Her longer hair framed her face in soft waves, and tumbled down her back. She may have looked cute with her pixie cut, but now she looked like a _woman_. It drove home to Billy that his adorable little Becca had most definitely grown up in the last three years. Tangling his fingers further into her hair, he held her still as he lowered his lips to her own. _I will never get tired of kissing these lips…_

* * *

Rebecca raised a hand to grasp the back of his neck and draw him closer. She sat herself up a little straighter in his lap, and twisted her body around until she was facing him. This time her fall had been a close call, and she needed his nearness. She needed to feel his body against hers to remind her that she was alive. She needed _him_. 

The kiss between them turned passionate as she poured all of her emotions into it. Rebecca could feel Billy’s fingers dig into her soft flesh as he pulled her tighter to him, the curves of her body fitting the hard angles of his like they were created for each other. All of the sudden, he pulled his lips away from her own as their breath panted out and mingled in the air between them. 

“What’s wrong?” She asked softly, fighting to catch her breath. 

“Slow down, baby.” He sounded just as out of breath as she did. He also sounded like he was going to try and talk some sense into her. Rebecca decided she didn’t want that.

“Please, Billy…” She whispered, and pressed against him again. She heard him groan low in his throat.

“Becca… Have you ever…?” He sounded like he was already regretting asking her. A blush tinted her cheeks as she comprehended what exactly it was that he was asking. 

“…No.” Her voice was hesitant, half afraid that he would pull away from her. He looked surprised, though some other emotion lurked in his eyes that she couldn’t quite make out.

“So you’re still…?” She huffed out an aggravated breath.

“Does it really matter?” He ran a hand down her back, and it sent tingles down her spine. She didn’t want him to tell her all the reasons why she couldn’t have him; she didn’t want to hear it. 

“Baby… It shouldn’t be like this. For your first time, it should be perfect.” Part of her was touched that he wanted perfection for her. The other part of her was internally screaming in frustration. She grasped the sides of his face firmly, and forced him to look her in the eye. 

“Billy…” He met her eyes reluctantly. “It’s _you_. It’s perfect. I’ve been waiting for this for the past three years.” Crossing her arms at her waist, she gripped his shirt and pulled it off of her body. His fingers tensed where they held her hips, but he didn’t say a word. She grabbed her own t-shirt, and similarly stripped it off. 

As she did, his dog tags around her neck jingled softly and drew his attention down to them. He reached a tentative hand up, and traced the etched letters that spelled out his own name. A look of wonder was on his face as he looked up into her eyes. She watched as emotions battled within him, curious and hopeful as to which would come out the winner.

* * *

This sight of his dog tags around her neck, as if they were claiming ownership of her for him, was what did it. 

Billy snapped. All thoughts left his head as he rolled and trapped her body beneath him on the floor except for one.

_MINE._


	12. Mine, and Mine Alone

There was a fog in his mind. The feel of her beneath him was the only solid thing that his brain was capable of focusing on right at that moment. Billy kept his lips pressed firmly to her own while his hands got busy on exposing all of her sweet flesh. She pulled her lips away from his and took in a shaky breath.

“I suppose it’d be a good idea to ask whether or not I need to be worried about monstrous things sneaking up on us…” There was a laugh in her voice, and Billy couldn’t help but smile.

“Nah, I’d scanned the room before hauling you up. For now, you and I are completely alone…” There was the dark edge of sinful intent in his voice, and he didn’t try to hide it. He watched as a shiver traced itself over her skin, her eyes seeming to light up with a heat that made his blood boil. He was still unsure that they should be doing this, but the way her small hands ran down his stomach to the top of his jeans kicked all thoughts of protesting firmly out of his head. 

As he felt the button on his pants give way to her fingers, his breath seemed to stop coming all together. _Christ… If she keeps going, I’m gonna lose it…_ Billy pressed his face into Becca’s shoulder, trying to calm his heated body down. He had to make this good for her. His stripping of her own pants off of her was slow and deliberate, but it was all to soon that he lost his mind over her again. 

The soft skin of her upper thigh under his hands was hot, calling to his mind just what other places on her would be hotter. On her part, she seemed just as hurried as him to meld their skin and bodies together, to prove their feelings to each other in the most elemental way possible. 

Billy was no fool; he’d been around and had his share of willing girlfriends in the past. He knew very well that sex didn’t always equal love. But this time was different; he could feel it right down to the soul that he hadn’t been sure he even still had. He loved her. Probably always had, right from the moment he first laid eyes on her in that damnable train. It just took him awhile to figure it out for himself. There was no one as precious to him as Becca, no one that had a hold of him in quite the same way. 

His teeth gently bit into the flesh at her neck, and he could feel her pulse quickly fluttering against his lips. A part of him was startled to realize that his own heart was hammering away just as fast. A breathy gasp sounded from her, and that small noise had the power to drive him into a fever. His hands ran over her, as if to imprint the shape of her forever into his memory. Her hands were likewise as busy; she traced soft fingertips over muscle, explored the length of his back, and seemed to be trying to map out every scar on him. His own breath hitched as she raised her legs to his hips and pressed her lips once again to his. 

Revelling in the taste of her lips, Billy pressed forward to bring them finally together. The last thought to enter his mind before he completely lost himself in the feelings and movements was like a piece of a puzzle had finally been placed: _Home… She will forever and always be ‘home’ to me._ With Becca, he was complete.

* * *

Rebecca tried to catch her breath, but it was a futile effort. The quick pants and moans that escaped her lips didn’t at all sound like herself, but she couldn’t control the noises. Her body was glorying in the feelings coursing through it, in the way that Billy’s hands seemed to be worshipping her. She had never felt more precious or more wholly loved in her entire life as she did then. _I love him… Oh, I love him, I love him, I love him…_

The words rang out through her head, an endless litany of a truth she had always known but never wanted to consciously admit. If she had fully admitted to herself that she loved him, the separation all of those years would have been far too much to bear. He was in her blood now; she needed him to be with her as much as she needed air to breathe. They were going to make it through this whole ordeal with Umbrella alive… She wouldn’t be able to live without him otherwise. Not now.

He was placing small, loving kisses over her face as if begging her to open her eyes that had somehow slipped shut. Her lids slowly raised, and her breath caught once again at the sight above her. Billy’s skin was coated in a sheen of sweat, from the effort of keeping himself in check, no doubt. He brushed the bridge of his nose against hers in a caress, and placed a gentle kiss upon her lips. The look in his beautiful eyes was intense, and Rebecca felt as though she could stare into them for hours. 

Their panting breaths mingled in the small space between their lips, and she concentrated of the steady beating of his heart that reverberated from his chest to her own. To Rebecca, it felt as though their hearts were beating in sync, a whimsical notion that she chose to seal into the recesses of her memory. One day, when she thought back on this magical moment, it would be that detail that she would recall the most. In that moment, it was as if they were one being, with one soul. 

She knew that she would probably look back on these thoughts and shake her head over the whimsy and melodrama of them, but for now she gloried in the closeness. Never before had she felt like this, any of this. The heat was rising within her, but she wasn’t afraid of it. She knew that Billy would be there to catch her when she fell. He gripped her tightly as her body shook from the sensations, whispering sweet words into her ear that later she couldn’t properly recall. 

But it was his end that most satisfied her. The expression on his face, the way his breath hitched as he groaned her name like a prayer… Rebecca felt the happiness well within her chest and clung to him even tighter. His weight as he collapsed against her was solid, but a welcome burden to her. She gently ran her fingers through his thick hair and down his back, soothing him while she tried to make her foggy mind think of something to say. 

**_Rebecca – Age 7_ **

_Rebecca stared in anticipation at her father._

_“Pleeeeeeeeease, daddy?” He stroked his chin with his fingers, seeming to make a play of denying her simple request. “Please, will you tell me the story again?” She was practically bouncing in her seat at the kitchen table._

_“And which story is that, Punkin?” He asked her with a silly smile. Rebecca rolled her eyes._

_“You know which one!” She cried in exasperation. He relented, and began the tale that she had heard countless times in her young life._

_“Mommy and daddy met when they were just fourteen.” He began. “Mommy fell in love with daddy at first sight, and chased him horribly.” A dish towel came sailing in from the kitchen, smacking him in the back of the head with the kind of accuracy that only comes from twenty-one years together. Laughing, he continued on._

_“At first, mommy and daddy really liked each other, but daddy did a bad thing and got mommy mad at him.”_

_“Bad daddy!” Rebecca scolded. He only laughed again._

_“Two years later, when mommy and daddy were sixteen, they fell in love again. When daddy was nineteen, and had saved some money, he bought mommy a pretty diamond ring and asked her to marry him.”_

_“But how did you ask, daddy? Don’t forget that part!” He smiled indulgently at his daughter._

_“Daddy cut open a box of mommy’s favourite, Pink Elephant Popcorn, and took out the prize that it came with. He put in the diamond ring instead, and sealed the box back up. That way, when mommy went looking for her prize, she found the ring instead! Isn’t daddy smart?”_

_“Really smart!”_

_“So, mommy said ‘yes!’ and they got married when they were twenty-one. But mommy and daddy wanted some time to themselves first, so that’s why you didn’t come along until they were twenty-eight.”_

_“I wanna meet my love when I’m fourteen too!” Rebecca squealed in delight, not noticing the bead of sweat developing on her father’s forehead as her mother sent him ‘the look’._

_“Now, honey…” He began. “It’s important not to rush that kind of thing. When you’ve met the right boy to marry, you’ll know it. You might not meet him when you’re young, it might be later. MUCH later.” Rebecca looked at him in confusion when he mumbled under his breath, “In fact, why don’t you wait until your thirties before you date…”._

_That was when another dish towel found its mark on the back of his head from the kitchen._

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca realized she must have dozed off in her thoughts a little, as she was startled by a sudden cool breeze. Billy shifted his weight, and pulled back to see her expression.

“You alright?” He asked, a hint of concern in his eyes. 

“Yeah… I just felt a bit chilly.” He reluctantly pulled away from her to let her get warm clothing back on. Rebecca felt his eyes roving over her exposed skin as she moved, and began to get a little self-conscious. “...What?” She asked when he smiled.

“Just enjoying my view…” That smart-assed grin that was typically Billy made an appearance, and it eased her nerves. He sighed and got to his feet, searching out his own clothing as well. Rebecca turned just as he was lifting his sleeveless undershirt to put it back on. Her nose wrinkled in distaste.

“You are _not_ putting that back on.” She said firmly. The undershirt was a mass of dirt, blood, rips and tears, and was more of a brown colour now than anything. He looked at the shirt quizzically, but shrugged and dropped it back to the ground. She tossed his long-sleeved shirt at him that she had been wearing earlier. “Here, you can put that back on. I don’t really need it anymore, since it warmed up.”

* * *

“Fuck, did it ever…” Billy muttered under his breath while sliding the shirt over his head. He tried to keep himself from staring at her while she finished getting dressed, but he just couldn’t help it. She really was beautiful… _And all mine._ He picked his trusty Magnum back up off the floor and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans at his lower back. He glanced up as Becca made her way over to him, her loose hair falling softly around her face and making her look like the Siren she was. 

She smiled softly up at him, a hint of nervousness about her that nearly did him in. He wrapped her up in a tight hug, loving the feel of her against him. _I’ll never get tired of this._ They stood there for a silent moment, words not immediately necessary between them after the experience they had just had. Curious as to what was going on in her head, he decided he’d just ask her outright.

“Whatcha thinking?” She smiled softly before answering him.

“I was wishing that I had met you when I was fourteen.” Billy got the feeling that there was some inside joke that he wasn’t getting, but that was okay. He figured he could always just ask her about it later. 

“Think Chris and Jill have made it down here yet?” He mused, not really expecting an answer. He got one anyway.

“If they haven’t, it’ll probably be soon. Those two are pretty resourceful.” Billy pulled her over to a small sofa that he hadn’t noticed earlier. 

“Might as well get comfy while we wait for them.” Becca nodded her head in agreement, and snuggled into his side as they sat down. Silence fell between them again, but to Billy it felt more like a comfortable silence, rather than an awkward one. 

His hands couldn’t stop touching her. Billy ran his fingers through her soft hair, listening to her quiet hums of appreciation. He could picture the two of them, forty years in the future, sitting on their own sofa just like this. The mental image shook him a little. He’d never figured that he would be the ‘till-death-do-you-part’ kind of guy. Sure, he’d always liked women… But to spend the rest of his life with one? He’d never thought he’d actually find the right woman for it. But no doubt about it, Becca was the right one for him. If they could make it through this newest Umbrella nightmare, if they could put those assholes down for good, then he and Becca just might get the forever-after that he suddenly wanted with her. 

His thoughts were quickly cut off when the door to the room they were in crashed under the weight of Chris’ boot. Chris stormed into the room, Jill on his heels, but came to a quick halt at the sight of Billy and Becca so snuggled up on the couch. 

“Comfortable?” He snarked good-naturedly, while the two of them reluctantly got to their feet. Becca began braiding her hair to contain it, and Billy was sad to see the loose waves go. “Man, it took us forever to get down here.” Chris complained as he strolled over to the hole in the floor to take a look. 

“That’s okay,” Jill began with a sly smile while she looked at Billy. “I’m sure they found a way to keep themselves… occupied.” Chris glanced at her in puzzlement, but didn’t seem to completely catch the innuendo, a fact that Billy was secretly glad for. Chris treated Becca like a little sister, and probably wouldn’t have appreciated what all had happened on the very floor he was standing on. 

Billy felt her soft hand twine with his own, and held a smile in check. It was gonna be pretty funny to see Chris’ reaction when he eventually found out, though.


	13. Shades of the Past

"Chris, watch it!" Rebecca screamed, as one of the infected lurched up behind him. Chris spun just in time to take it out with a single bullet to the forehead, and she let out the breath she had been holding. _We must be getting close_ , she thought. The more they had descended into to Umbrella facility hidden in the abandoned school, the more frequent and horrific the virus victims had become - both animal and man.

With a final blast from Billy's Magnum, the creatures in that particular room were all defeated... For the moment. Rebecca wiped at the sweat that had collected on her brow with the back of her forearm, and figured that she didn't want to know how she looked just at that minute. She was sure it wasn't the most elegant of sights. _He didn't seem to mind earlier..._ Rebecca could feel a blush spring to her cheeks as her mind circled back to what had happened between Billy and herself after he had saved her from the hole. She had to sternly tell herself to stop thinking about it, or her concentration would be absolutely nil. And she _definitely_ needed all of her wits about her when it came to dealing with Umbrella.

A slightly broken statue in the corner of the room caught her attention, jerking her further out of her thoughts. There was an indent in the side of the statue that vaguely resembled the blade shape of a long knife they had picked up earlier. 

"Hey, Jill..." Rebecca called. The older woman's attention swung to Rebecca with an expectant look. "Bring that dagger over for a minute?" Jill patiently brought the item, having learned by now that Rebecca never asked unless she had noticed something the rest of them hadn't. Taking the dagger, Rebecca hesitantly slid it into the indent in the statue as the others looked on. As the blade softly clicked into place, it created an eerie and foreboding sight; the fit of the dagger made the statue appear as though it was stabbing itself in the stomach. A low rumbling was heard as the statue haltingly slid to the side, and a ladder leading down was revealed. 

"God damn..." Jill sighed, "Can't they ever just have a normal set of stairs that don't require some obscure puzzle to solve first? I'm getting really sick of this shit." Billy chuckled at her grumbling, while Chris and Rebecca shared a tired smile. They were pretty sick of it, themselves. Billy took point and started down the rusty old ladder first, Chris hot on his heels. Rebecca shared an eye-roll with Jill over the show of typical male chivalry before heading down the ladder themselves.

What greeted them at the bottom was nothing new to the four of them, being well-versed in Umbrella underground facilities - there was _always_ the inevitable drastic change from old and derelict to shiny and high-tech. Shaking her head at the wealth of glass and technology that suddenly surrounded them, Rebecca started down a hallway that led to the left. The way that the place was messily abandoned - like always - had chills running down her spine. 

"Why that way?" Chris questioned her, the indecision on whether to follow her or take the other hallway clear on his face. Rebecca sent him a patient smile while she explained.

"Because there's a security terminal over here. Jill might be able to hack in and get us some info." Jill sent her a tight nod and got to work while Chris smiled.

"This is why I love you, girl. You think of all the shit I never would." Chris ruffled her hair a little while he went to watch Jill work at the terminal. Billy walked over to Rebecca and grinned devilishly. 

"What?" Rebecca asked him, a little suspiciously. He grinned more.

"I was just thinking that I bagged me a smart one." He laughed when she rolled her eyes and lightly punched him on the shoulder. Tangling his fingers in her hair that was falling loose from her braid, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Rebecca closed her eyes, enjoying the short moment of peace with him. She hoped with all her heart that this whole ordeal would soon be over, so that they could figure out where to go from here.

* * *

Billy rested his lips against her forehead for a moment, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair. He knew damn well that it was only going to get worse from here, and wanted to soak in the feeling of peace for as long as he could. He knew that as soon as this bullshit with Umbrella was over, him and his Becca were gonna have a good long talk about the fact that she didn't have a hope in hell of living without him anymore. Now that he had found her again, absolutely _nothing_ \- save from Rebecca herself - would stop him from taking what he wanted, and he wanted _her_.

"Hey, lovebirds." Chris called over from the security terminal. "We're having some issues here. Come help." They joined Chris and Jill at the screen, though Billy knew he probably wouldn't be much help. Becca stared hard at the screen for awhile, before _that_ look came over her face. 

"What is it?" Jill asked her, apparently recognizing what that look meant as well.

"Maybe..." Becca whispered, more to herself than anything. She pulled something out of her pocket, and Billy saw that it was the old picture of the little boy that they had found much earlier. She stared hard at the photo, moving over to the keyboard for the terminal. Billy noticed that the archway behind the boy in the picture showed the beginnings of two words, but the end of it was obscured by the boy's head. Becca seemed to be concentrating especially hard, before she hesitantly tapped on the keyboard.

"B-I-R-K..." Jill read out as Becca typed. "Birkin Asylum." Jill mused after she had finished typing. Becca nodded her head, and pressed 'enter'. They waited with held breath for what felt like an hour before the screen turned green and 'password accepted' flashed. "How'd you know?" Jill asked her. 

"I just had a feeling..." Becca shrugged her shoulders. Billy just shook his head; he'd stopped asking questions a long time ago. Jill took back over on the terminal, searching for any information that could help them. It wasn't long before a chilling voice greeted them from behind.

"How sweet... What a lovely family reunion." Billy whipped around with his gun at the ready, as did the others.

"It can't be!" Chris gritted out, while Jill cursed under her breath and Becca's lips tightened in anger. Billy felt a flash of confusion; apparently they all knew the creep, but he had no clue who the hell it was.

"Wesker!" Chris looked ready to tear the guy to pieces, while Jill and Becca had a hint of fear in their eyes. The creep chuckled and sauntered closer to them at an easy pace.

"Chris Redfield..." He drawled out, looking completely unconcerned about the four guns pointed at him. "How's your sister?"

"Fuck you!" Chris glared even harder at him, and Jill placed one hand on his tense shoulder while her gun remained steady in the other hand.

"Don't give him what he wants, Chris." She said softly. Chris made a noticeable effort to calm down a bit. Billy felt himself tense up when the creep's head turned his way.

The guy had bleached blond hair, slicked back like a greasy lawyer. He wore dark clothes with a long, dark red coat over top and a dark pair of sunglasses. The fact that Billy couldn't see his eyes is what bothered him most - you could tell a lot about a man by his eyes. This 'Wesker' took a couple steps closer to him, and Billy tightened his grip on the Magnum.

"And who do we have here?" Wesker drawled out in his droll English voice. The sound made the hair on the back of Billy's neck stand on end. "Someone new to play with?" Billy'd had enough.

"Why don't you cut the 'cute' shit and get down to fightin'..." Billy spat it out more like a demand than a question. Wesker only chuckled more, and reached up to remove his sunglasses. His eyes glowed an inhuman red, and from behind him Billy heard Becca gasp.

"You're... infected!" She stuttered, though Billy noticed that Chris and Jill didn't look overly surprised by the news. 

"How astute of you, dear Rebecca." Wesker taunted, and Billy's blood started to boil. _Don't even **think** about touching my Becca..._ A low growl sounded in his throat, bringing Wesker's attention back to Billy. "Oh... A little protective, aren't we? _William_." Billy's eyes narrowed.

"I _would_ say that I'm flattered," Billy ground out. "but I'd rather not have freaky trash like you speak my name." There was an almost unnoticeable tightening around Wesker's fucked up eyes that only told Billy he'd finally managed to piss him off, just a little. Wesker didn't respond, but only turned his attention back to Chris. 

"You and I have a score to settle, Redfield." Chris didn't appear to react, but Wesker had his full attention nonetheless. Wesker turned his back on them to walk away, and Billy fired. Before the bullet had even cleared the chamber, Wesker had disappeared. Billy blinked and turned to the others.

"Seriously... What the fuck?!"

**_Billy - Age 21_ **

_Billy was at the base, sweating his ass off under the hot sun while moving some crates around with the other soldiers. They were joking around with each other, trying to keep themselves in a good mood while they worked hard. Billy and Stu had created a competition out of throwing the boxes at each other to move them, and the other guys had smartly decided to stay out of their way._

_One of them wasn't so smart after all, though. Billy had stripped down to his sleeveless undershirt, and Antonio had decided to open his big mouth._

_"Hey man, that mean you hit your girl?" Antonio said with a snicker, voice slightly slurred. Probably high again. Billy slowly straightened up from bending to lift a box._

_"What." He growled out. Stu recognized the anger in in Billy's voice, but Antonio was too stupid to notice._

_"You know, 'wife beater'?" He laughed again. "You're wearing a wife-beater, so you must beat your wife!" He collapsed into a fit of laughter again, and Billy slowly stalked forward to stand in front of him. Stu took a small step, as if unsure whether he should be stopping Billy or not._

_Billy saw red. His mother had dealt with abusive assholes before, one of which was his biological father, and Billy had been raised that you never, **ever** put your hands on a woman in anger. To even joke about it was unacceptable. Billy stepped forward again, drawing his knife out of his back pocket. Tapping the blade against Antonio's inner thigh, he looked him straight in the eyes so that his message would be loud and clear._

_"Antonio, if you **ever** insinuate that I beat a woman again..." Billy growled menacingly as the rest of the guys went silent. "I will cut your pathetically tiny dick right off. You got that?" Antonio nodded his head jerkily, and swallowed loudly._

_"Yeah... Yeah, man. I got it. I was just joking around, you know? No harm, no harm. I won't do it again." Billy continued to threaten him with both his eyes and the knife blade close to his pride and joy._

_"You'd better." Billy put the knife into his back pocket while he walked back towards Stu. He tried to calm himself down and get back to work. To Billy, women were meant to be loved, spoiled, and protected with your own life if necessary._

**_Present Day_ **

"I'm going after him." Chris' voice held a note of finality, and Rebecca knew that there was no argument that he would listen to. Jill was going to try anyway, though.

"Fuck no." She spat out, and Chris sighed heavily.

"I'm going."

"You're not."

"Jill..." She glared at him some more. 

"You're not going by yourself. I'm coming with you." Chris opened his mouth to argue with her, but she didn't give him the chance. "You and I have gone after Wesker together before; just because you're screwing me now doesn't change that." Chris' jaw tightened in anger, and Rebecca's stomach started to twist. She hated it when they both got so stubborn.

"Don't make it sound like that..." Chris said to Jill quietly, a touch of hurt in his voice. Jill's shoulders sagged a bit at that. "I just don't want you to get hurt." Jill placed her hands on either side of his face and gently kissed his lips. Rebecca felt like she was intruding on their moment, but it wasn't as if she had somewhere else to go.

"Same goes for me, Cowboy." Jill insisted. "It's not like I'm gonna say to you 'Oh hey, go ahead and get yourself killed, I'll just wait at home like a good little lady'." Chris laughed a little, and shook his head.

"I don't think you have a 'good little lady' anywhere in you." He insisted fondly. He turned back to Billy and Rebecca. "You two good on your own again for awhile?" Billy simply nodded, and Rebecca smiled at them.

"We'll be just fine," She insisted, trying to put Chris a little more at ease. "You two just take care of yourselves."

"Yeah," Billy interjected. "no more marital rows." Jill laughed and Chris shook his head. A serious look came to Chris' face as he gripped Billy's shoulder.

"I'm counting on you," Chris told him. "Rebecca's like a little sister to me. Something happens to her, and I'll raise hell." Billy's face sobered as he nodded his head in understanding. _Men..._ , Rebecca thought to herself. _Always have to be so macho._ With that little round of male-bonding, Chris and Jill disappeared in the opposite direction, following Wesker. Rebecca's insides quaked a little in fear for them, but she knew that Chris and Jill could take care of each other just fine. Billy jerked her out of her thoughts by planting a quick kiss to the back of her neck.

"Come on, Beautiful..." He said with a wry grin. "We've got the world to save. Again."


	14. To Each Her Own

Billy glanced at Becca, his eyes narrowing as he tried to determine her mood. She'd been quiet since they'd split from Chris and Jill, which had him worried. It wasn't like her to be completely silent, not once telling him some random fact pulled from that beautiful brain of hers. Instead, she'd quietly followed his lead through the underground facility, chewing on her luscious bottom lip in thought. It was driving him nuts.

"So..." He began. Not the best starter, but he wasn't all that concerned with finesse at the moment. "What's the deal with this 'Wesker' asshole?" 

She sighed heavily and rubbed her tired eyes before answering him, and Billy almost felt bad for asking. But, he was pretty sure this was info that he needed to know.

"Albert Wesker was the Captain of the S.T.A.R.S. unit that I was recruited into when I was eighteen. He seemed so... _normal_ all bad. All that alone time with a cute young thing..." She giggled before shooting him that _Don't be silly_ look. 

"After we parted, I made my way to the Spencer Mansion to try and rejoin any other S.T.A.R.S. members that I could find. As soon as HQ learned about the crash, Alpha team had set out to find us. Eventually, Chris found me hiding in a room and I followed him around after that. It was that night that we learned who Wesker _really_ was." An angry tone had come over her voice, and it immediately put Billy on edge. 

"What happened?" He almost didn't want to ask, knowing that it was probably horrible.

"We eventually discovered that he'd been working for Umbrella all along... So many of our men died in that nightmare. For _nothing_. I didn't hear much about him after that; I'd wanted to get so far away from everything. I went back to school, tried to get on with life. To be honest, I'd thought - _hoped_ \- that he was dead."

"If there's one thing that Umbrella's good at, it's bringing back the dead." There was no humour in Billy's voice this time. A man who turned his back on his soldiers and brought about their destruction was a whole new breed of asshole.

"Chris and Jill didn't seem overly surprised, did they?" She said it more like a statement than a question. "It's possible that they've had other run-ins with Wesker that I was unaware of... Unlike me, they never really left the game." Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts, Becca took a deep breath before turning back to him. "We need to find the central security room."

"Why?" To Billy, the demand seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Because I think I know who the boy in the photograph is."

**_Rebecca - Age 12_ **

_"They're in!" Rebecca's mother cheered as she bounced into the kitchen. Rebecca glanced up from the thick book she was reading, her stomach twisting a bit in nervousness. A few weeks earlier, her parents and her school had pulled her out of class for a couple days to take some kind of special test. It was supposed to tell them how smart she was; it made her nervous because she didn't want to disappoint anyone._

_"Well, what do the results say?" Her father asked eagerly, though he seemed much calmer about it than her mother. They all seemed to hold their breath as her mother split open the envelope._

_"Oh my god..." Her mother almost whispered as she scanned the report. Rebecca hoped that was a good 'oh my god' and not a bad one. Her mother suddenly laughed, her smile wide and infectious. "It says that she's at a university level! At the age of **twelve**! Look at this..." She pointed to a spot on the page as she brought it around the table to show her father. "It says her intelligence tested higher than ninety-seven percent of other kids her age!"_

_As they both marvelled over the intelligence of their daughter, Rebecca felt equal parts relieved and anxious. She was relieved that she hadn't disappointed them with her scores, but now she was also anxious about what was to come. She felt like now she wasn't going to be allowed to do less than perfect. As if reading her thoughts, her parents turned to her._

_"Rebecca, honey..." Her mother began. "This doesn't have to change anything, if you don't want it to." She placed an arm gently around Rebecca's shoulders and smiled into her eyes._

_"What d'you mean?" Rebecca asked. Didn't her being some kind of genius change **everything**?_

_"If you don't want to change schools and leave your friends, then you won't have to. You don't need to feel forced into anything; we just want you to be happy, honey." Rebecca though on it for a long minute, before she hesitantly answered._

_"I want to stay with my friends..." She was afraid that despite what they had said, they would still be disappointed. Her parents just smiled at her, seemingly not upset at all._

_"Okay, honey. No problem."_

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca's eyes flickered quickly back and forth as she searched the main computer terminal for the information she sought. Billy stood just behind her shoulder, leaning heavily on the hand he'd propped on the desk beside her.

"Just _what_ are we looking for, Beautiful?" Billy's voice held a hint of amusement, probably because she'd gotten lost in her thoughts again. She tended to do that... a lot.

"I realized just now why the boy in the picture seemed familiar to me all this time." Billy raised a brow, patiently waiting for her to continue. "...I think it's Wesker." Billy frowned in thought.

"How d'you figure?" Rebecca produced the photograph to show him.

"If you look at the eyes, and the general structure of the face, you can see the similarities. I can't help but think that this is a photograph of a young Wesker." Billy nodded his head, apparently seeing the same similarities as her. "So, I want to search for any information possible concerning Wesker and his connections to Umbrella. We already learned at the Spencer Mansion that Wesker's loyalties lie with Umbrella, but I want to know just how much. Like why there would be a childhood photograph of him lying around a secret Umbrella facility, for instance." Billy nodded his head again.

"You're the brains of this outfit, Beautiful. Let's get to it."

* * *

That turned out to be easier said than done. Billy was quickly getting more and more pissed off with the whole situation, and it wasn't helping his frustration any. _All I want is to get this shit over and done with so I can take Becca home with me._ Billy had no idea whether or not she was ready for that kind of thing, but he figured that he had to at least try. He wondered absently to himself if he was rushing her.

Billy forced himself to look at the facts of the whole situation. In the beginning, they had spent one hellish night together; while it was true that relying on someone with your life forms a quick bond, in reality they didn't know much about each other at all. They had been separated - with absolutely no contact - for three years. He'd already noticed how much growing up his Becca had done in that time; what was to say that she hadn't changed in other ways as well? _And as for now..._ Well, he'd pretty much stormed back into her life without giving her much of an option about it. After not seeing her for three years, in a matter of days he'd kissed her and stolen her innocence. And now he was thinking about telling her he wanted her to stay with him forever. _Yeah, sure. Because when you look at it this way, it's not rushing her **at all**..._

Billy told his sarcastic inner voice to shut the fuck up. He loved her. He loved her with every fibre of his scarred body and twisted soul, and that's all there was to it. If anything were to happen to her, it would absolutely destroy him. But, you can bet your ass he'd take whoever hurt her with him on his way to hell. There was only one thing left to him then: he'd lay all his cards on the table, and let her decide what she wanted from him. If this had just been a casual thing for her, and she wasn't ready for the forever-after that he was offering, he'd just have to take it like a man and watch her walk away.

"Here, I've got something!" The sound of her voice jerked him back out of his thoughts. _About fucking time we found some information._ Becca bit her lip in concentration, and he could tell not all was right. 

"What's the problem?" He asked as he came closer to the screen she was at. She shook her head slightly. 

"The majority of the file is encrypted..." Billy glanced at the screen, and saw nothing but a bunch of numbers. 

"What the fuck is this shit?" The crude question surprised a laugh out of her, and the sound made him smile.

"I think it's... Yes! It is!" Her voice was excited, and Billy chuckled in amusement. 

"Uh... care to let the rest of the class in on your amazing discovery?" She blushed a bit at that one.

"It's kind of simple, really."

"If you say so." Personally, he had his doubts about that. She laughed and shook her head.

"They've used a very old cypher; it's actually very easy to decode once you know which format they've used."

"Come again?"

"This method of encryption and decoding was first developed by an Italian, Leon Battista Alberti, as a cypher disk in the fifteenth century. During the American Civil War in the 1860s, the Union soldiers used a version of it for encryption. Then again in the 1930s it was widely used by the Ovaltine company for promotional purposes; they would send out decoder badges for children who listened to the _Little Orphan Annie_ radio broadcasts." Billy stared at her in amazement. _Seriously... How does she know all of this shit?_

"You said something about 'which format'?" He asked, feeling all kinds of out of his element. She nodded her head enthusiastically. 

"There were different formats for the numbering, typically three: Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Look here," She pointed to the top corner of the screen. "It's marked with the Greek symbol representing 'alpha'. That must mean that the Alpha format of numbering is the proper decryption method."

"...Aaaaaand just let me guess. You just happen to have that particular format stored somewhere in that beautiful brain of yours." She blushed and looked away from him.

"I might know enough to make sense of it..." She said modestly, obviously embarrassed by her know-it-all-ness. Billy grinned.

"You're a genius." He said with a laugh.

"So they keep telling me." Her voice still held it's embarrassed edge.

"How long for you to decode it, do you think?" She sighed heavily, seemingly calculating it in her mind.

"For a file this size? An hour, minimum." That was quite a bit longer than he wanted to stay put in one spot; who knew what fucked up creatures could find them in there? But, the information in that file might be absolutely essential to them. They couldn't pass the opportunity up.

"Alright. You get to work, and I'll watch both our backs. Do your thing, little girl."

_I'm in love with a god damn genius._ Billy was smiling.


	15. Stolen

Rebecca's brain felt like it was going three thousand miles a minute. Because she knew the Alpha numbering sequence for decrypting the Wesker file already, it wasn't particularly hard for her to do. It was just a long process due to the size of the file. _I'm working as fast as I can, and that's all I can expect from myself._ Billy bent over to look at something, and it momentarily distracted her. _Now is **not** the time, Rebecca!_ Her other inner voice couldn't resist one last parting shot, however. _He does have an abnormally cute ass, for a man._

"How goes the decryption?" Billy's rough voice simultaneously cut into her juvenile thoughts and sent delicious shivers up and down her spine. The man could make her tingle from head to toe, with just a word.

"I'm almost there. And, I've got to tell you, I'm not liking what I'm seeing so far." Her mood sobered as she finished with the file. There it all was, laid out for her on the screen like the script for a nightmare. There was more to Wesker and his involvement with Umbrella than any of them could have ever imagined. 

"So what's the dirty news? How deep is he involved in all this?" Billy had an edge to his voice like he already suspected how deep, but was hoping he was wrong. Rebecca hesitated for a moment before she ground out the answer.

"All the way."

* * *

Billy felt the dread wash over him at her words. They had all known from the beginning of this mission that it was going to be extremely dangerous; they'd gone in knowing that there were no guarantees they would all make it out alive. Frankly, Billy thought it was pure dumb luck that all of them had made it this far.

But the look on Becca's face told him that the stakes had just been raised. Wesker was a wild-card that Billy sure as hell hadn't been counting on, and when it came to life-or-death situations, surprises were not appreciated.

"Give it to me straight, baby." Becca was putting on a calm front, but he could see the fear lurking in her eyes. He knew his girl, and so he knew that the more she tried to look collected, the worse the news was going to be.

"It says here that Wesker - along with dozens of other genetically superior children - was collected by Umbrella and raised under the 'Wesker Children Project'. There's not much information about the project here, but it's probably safe to assume that it _wouldn't_ have been sunshine and kittens for the rest of humanity." Billy's lips formed in a tight smirk at that, but he wasn't really finding much humour in the situation. Rebecca continued on. "He began working as a researcher for Umbrella at the age of seventeen... In 1977 he worked in the Management Training Facility under Dr. James Marcus along with William Birkin."

"Well, well. Those two names ring a bell." Billy remembered that Marcus had been the looney responsibly for the T-Virus leeches they'd had to deal with on the Ecliptic Express, and Birkin's name struck him as familiar from the sign 'Birkin Asylum' in Wesker's childhood photo that they had found.

"In 1988 Wesker and Birkin were ordered to assassinate Marcus and steal his research... In 1996 he joined S.T.A.R.S. to work as a double agent for Umbrella." An incredulous look came upon her face, and Billy moved closer to her out of instinct. "It says here that Bravo team was dispatched so that Wesker could gather battle data in how the team fared against the B.O.W.s..." The pain in her voice about the loss of her team for such a reason was unmistakable. Billy burned with the need to punish Wesker for all the evil he'd done.

"I'm sorry, baby..." He knew that there was nothing he could really say that would make it better for her. She sniffled a little, but continued to read out the information to him. 

"When he was confronted by Chris in the Spencer Mansion, they thought that he'd been killed by the Tyrant. This says that he'd already injected himself with an experimental virus. It resulted in abilities such as superhuman strength, regeneration, and agility. That's it; the file ends there." Rebecca seemed puzzled, but Billy's thoughts had kicked into high gear.

'He left."

"Pardon me?" Becca's voice mirrored her confusion.

"He left Umbrella, that's why the file ends there." Billy was willing to bet his life that's what had happened.

"But... Even if that's the case, why is he here now? What could possibly draw him back to an Umbrella facility?" Billy thought hard on that one for a minute. 

"There's probably information here that he wants to steal for himself or whoever it is that he's working for now. And, Chris being here is probably another draw for him - he seems like he wouldn't come all the way out here just for revenge on Chris, it's just a bonus for him. There must be something here that he wants." Rebecca nodded her head, apparently seeing the logic in his reasoning. "Now the only question is, what the fuck is it?" Rebecca was quiet a minute, before recognition lit her eyes.

"I know what it is... and we have it already." Billy sent her a confused glance, having absolutely no idea what she meant by that. She didn't take the time to explain, but just raced in the direction that Chris and Jill had gone and clearly expected him to follow her.

**_Billy - Age 26_ **

_Billy raced around the compartments of the seemingly abandoned train, trying to figure out just what in the fuck was going on. One minute he was being hauled off for a crime he didn't commit, the next his transport was attacked by what looked like inside-out dogs and he was running for his life. When he'd come across the train, he hadn't been sure if it was salvation from the creatures in the woods or not... But he'd figured that there weren't many options left to him._

_He spotted her before she was even aware that she wasn't alone. Billy felt like he'd been sucker punched at the sight of her; he literally stopped breathing for a minute, and that confused the hell outta him. Billy didn't need anybody... Since getting framed for the murder of an entire village, he'd learned that you could only trust and rely on yourself. Then in came walking this little slip of a thing, and turned everything he felt upside down._

_He wanted her. He knew his own body well enough to recognize that something about her was calling to him. Billy watched as she shot down a few of the zombie-looking guys, her gun hand steady but the rest of her looking scared outta her mind. Every fibre of his body wanted to go and rescue her, but Billy forced himself to remain still. Let her come to him._

_She was beautiful, if a little young. There was just something about her... Billy couldn't put his finger on what it was. As she came closer to his hiding spot, he breathed in and caught the scent of honey._

_When he saw her run into trouble with the latest nightmare creature, his body acted before his mind could even catch up; he dove in front of her, firing as many bullets as he could into the monster. He hadn't intended to put himself out there for some stranger, but there was something about her that brought out his protective side. When it was over and he heard her breathe his name, something hot began to run through him._

_"So you seem to know about me. Been fantasizing about me, have you?" The blush that tinted her cheeks at that held his interest more than it should. He wasn't gonna be able to leave this tiny girl alone, that he now knew. So he did the first thing that came to mind, and that was find an excuse to keep her by his side._

_"Listen, little girl, if you haven't noticed there's some pretty freaked out things on this train. And I, for one, wanna get out of here. I don't think we stand a chance of doing it alone."_

_When he thought back on that moment, Billy realized that for his poor twisted soul, it had been love at first sight. One tiny little girl unknowingly waltzed into his life and changed everything._

**_Present Day_ **

"Wait!" It didn't take Billy much effort to catch up with her short little legs, but Rebecca was on a mission and couldn't make herself slow down. "Seriously, Becca. What is it that Wesker's after?"

She paused in her tracks for a moment, and whipped around to face him. The halt in her momentum brought him up short as well, and he nearly stumbled over himself to keep from running her down. She couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of it sooner. _How stupid of you, Rebecca!_ She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing pulse a bit. 

"Remember when we were still above ground in the school? You came running when you heard me scream?" Billy nodded his head.

"Right, when the dehydrated corpse 'startled' you. Have I mentioned _don't do that to me ever again_ , by the way?" She smiled fondly at him for that one.

"Remember how we found that notebook detailing a new kind of virus? I'd bet anything that's what Wesker is here searching for." 

"I bet he could get a hell of a price selling that to whoever he's affiliated with now." Billy mused.

"You're absolutely correct, Mr. Coen." The voice seemed to come out of nowhere, and suddenly Wesker's arms were wrapped painfully tight around Rebecca's waist.

The moment seemed to slow as she took one last look at Billy, the fear freezing her body. She knew that she was about to be taken, what she didn't know was whether or not she'd still be alive when Billy found her. She still hadn't gotten the chance to tell him that she loved him... To let him know what he was to her. And now she feared she never would.

She was jerked off her feet as Wesker sped down the hallway at an inhuman speed, Billy's frantic voice calling her name in the distance.

* * *

_God fucking damn it!_ Billy couldn't believe that he'd let his guard down so much. Now Becca had been taken by that freak of nature, and it was all his fault. He should have been on watch; he should have seen Wesker coming from a mile away. He shouldn't have allowed her to be taken from him. _Stop beating yourself up about it, and get her back!_ Gritting his teeth, Billy headed in the direction that Wesker had disappeared. He tried to think positively about his chances, but the man moved like a ghost. Truth was, they could be anywhere by now.

"I'll find you, Becca... I promise." But the real question was, would he find her in time?


	16. Every Little Thing

Rebecca woke to grogginess. It took her a few moments to clear her mind and sort out just what, exactly, had happened to her. _Wesker_. That's right, she'd been snatched by Wesker just after realizing what he'd really come there for. _The virus information... I can't give it to him._ She'd rather die than place such terrifying information in the hands of such a monster. She subtly tested her arms and found that she was strapped tightly with restraints to a wall, so stiff that the only part of her body that could move was her head.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." The sound of Wesker's voice made every nerve in her body scream in agony. She sneered at him while he chuckled at his own tasteless joke. He removed his sunglasses to gaze at her, and the sight of his inhuman eyes only discomfited her more. Which, she was sure, was exactly why he had done it.

"You're wasting your time." Her voice sounded almost bored, but inside she quaked.

"You know, that's precisely what they always tell me... And yet, I still manage to always get what I want." He smiled at her evilly, and Rebecca tried to still the shivers that wanted to chase down her spine. 

"Yeah, well, I actually mean it. I don't have the journal containing the virus information." She knew that he wouldn't believe her, but she had to try and buy Billy some more time. _He'll come for me, I know he will._

"And just why would I believe that? You're forgetting, dear Rebecca, that I overheard everything you said earlier. I believe the exact words were 'we have it'." She smiled grimly at him, as if she'd just caught him on something. 

"Precisely. I said 'we', not 'I'. 'We' denotes that one of the _four_ of us has the information. And I said that you're wasting your time, because I am _not_ the one." She smirked at him, hope rising within her at the flicker of doubt that had appeared in his crimson eyes. _Please god, let him believe me..._

"You're either lying, or not quite as brilliant as we always believed you to be. What's to stop me from just gathering up your mates and searching you all? Perhaps a bit more... _thoroughly_ for yourself and Jill?" She knew right away what he was implying. 

"You put on finger on Jill and I'll kill you myself."

"I notice you didn't include yourself in that statement. How sacrificial." His voice dripped with derision, and her eyes narrowed to glare at him more. He turned to a nearby table, and picked up a syringe that glowed an unhealthy green. Sweat beaded on the back of Rebecca's neck as he approached her with it.

"Let's see what your friends will think of you after this..."

Rebecca refused to give him the satisfaction of futile struggling or pleading for him not to inject her. She remained perfectly still and promised him death with her eyes instead.

* * *

Billy delivered a powerful kick to yet another door, denting the metal and snapping the lock so that it swung inwards. _She's here somewhere. Get your shit together and find her!_ Without Becca's shoulder radio, he had no way of contacting Chris and Jill to let them know that Wesker now had the mother of all bargaining chips. 

_Please god, Allah, Buddha... Who the fuck ever, just let me find her safe and alive._ Billy had never been a praying man, but the words tumbled around in his brain anyway. Now that he had her back in his life, now that he knew the sweet feeling of her soft skin against his, now that he depended on her to _live_... He couldn't let her go. He wouldn't. He was willing to go to hell and back if it meant keeping her by his side.

A search of the room produced nothing useful, and his frustration mounted. He stormed to the next room and repeated the process of kicking the locked door until it gave under the power of his foot. _Fuck this 'run around and collect keys' shit._ He continued on this way until he reached a room where the door gave after only one kick. As the door swung inwards, Billy was greeted by an up-close-and-personal view of the barrel of a Beretta.

"Jesus, Billy... I almost shot you!" Chris let out the breath he'd been holding, and relaxed his stance. As Chris glanced around him, Billy prepared himself for the question he knew would come next. "Where's Rebecca?" Billy felt a mixture of rage at Wesker for taking her, and shame that he had to admit to her 'brother' that he'd failed to protect her.

"He took her." His words were hard, a world of agony hidden in them. Billy heard Jill's quiet gasp as she moved over to join them. Concern radiated from her eyes for Becca, but her question startled him.

"Are you okay?" Billy stared at her silently for a minute, trying to understand the question. _My entire reason for being's just been taken from me, and she wants to know if I'm 'okay'?_ He settled for the simplest answer.

"I'm not injured." There was a wealth of feeling behind the simple statement that she seemed to understand.

"You love her." Jill placed a hand on Chris' arm as she said it, as if in the face of Billy's pain she needed to reassure herself that _her_ love was still there. Billy nodded his head, agony eating away at him.

"I do." Chris seemed to stare him down for a minute, and Billy readied himself for the lecture he was sure to get for letting her get taken. 

"Then let's go get her back." Chris' words surprised Billy. He nodded his head, and they left the room to continue the search that Billy had started.

**_Rebecca - Age 18_ **

_Rebecca stared at the man in front of her, somehow completely unable to draw her eyes away from him. At first she'd been suspicious - he was a convicted murderer, after all - but now she found that she couldn't help but trust him._

_And she did trust him. Through the course of this hellish nightmare that they'd had to endure, he'd saved her her life more times than she could count. He'd told her about the massacre of the village, but hadn't confirmed or denied his role in it. She didn't need him to, though. Rebecca had seen enough of his character through this whole ordeal to know that Billy would have **never** done something like that. Billy would never kill unless forced to._

_Her heart ached for him and all he'd been put through. In him she saw strength, determination, and the complete confidence that comes with knowing exactly who and what you are. Rebecca envied that about him... She felt so insecure about herself all the time. She had always felt that she had to be smartest, the toughest, the most mature. She'd always been able to put on a good front, but inside she'd always doubted herself._

_That whole night, she'd hung on his every word. Everything he'd had to say - whether it be practical or teasing - had fascinated her. She'd never had someone capture her attention so completely. She'd caught herself over the course of the night sneaking closer and closer to his body. She'd never understood before how much comfort could be felt from another person. Sure, family and friends were like that, but this was something new._

_She'd never before felt the way that he made her feel. When he'd hugged her to him, giving her comfort after saving her from falling to death in the hole, her body had felt all warm and tingly from it. She'd felt safe and protected in his arms, a luxury that she'd rarely known._

_They came out of the woods to a sunrise, and hope fluttered in her chest. They'd made it through the night... together. For a few moments, they watched the new dawn in silence. Rebecca found that her eyes were drawn away from the rising sun and instead focused on his face. She studied his profile; the lean features and devastating colour of his eyes. Her gaze drifted down to his tattoo, tracing over the lines that to her spelled out the word 'love'._

_Yes, love. Rebecca might be young and naïve, but just at that moment she could see herself falling in love with him... If she hadn't already. That left her only one gift that she could give him._

_His freedom._

_As Rebecca reached up to remove his dog tags, she saw the surprise alight in his eyes. His skin was warm underneath her fingertips, and she had to resist the urge to touch him more._

_She told him that she was taking the dog tags as proof of his 'death', but as she slipped them over her own head she admitted the truth to herself. She wanted them for herself, as a reminder of the amazing man that she had once known._

_And a small part of her hoped that if she kept them, he'd come back for them one day. That he'd come back to her._

**_Present Day_ **

Billy felt as though there was a clock ticking in his brain. Who knew what kind of sick, twisted things Wesker was doing to her right at that moment? They needed to hurry. He'd explained to Chris and Jill about everything he and Becca had discovered about Wesker, as well as her realization that he was after the virus info. Their expressions had turned grim as they'd realized exactly what they were now up against.

There would be only two outcomes: either Rebecca would give up the information under torture and they'd be really screwed, or she'd keep silent and die, taking his whole world with her. Either option didn't sit well with him at all.

_Or, the third option: you get your ass in gear and rescue her in time!_ His hopeful inner voice reasoned. Billy gritted his teeth together, refusing to accept that they might be too late. Jill's call from the other end of the hallway broke into his thoughts.

"Over here! I found something!" Billy raced over to her, his heart pounding with renewed force. A chill settled over him when he glanced down.

His dog tags lay on the floor, half hidden by what appeared to be a dead end to the corridor. There was an oil painting on the wall, with a descriptive brass plate underneath. _If my tags are half under the wall, that can only mean one thing..._

"It's a passage way." He told the others as he bent to retrieve his dog tags from the ground. He tugged on them forcefully to pull them from where they were wedged. As he slipped them over his head, he remembered the day that she had taken them from him. _This feels wrong... They belong to her now._ Just like he did. He glanced back at the painting while he rose from his crouched position.

"So if that's a passage," Chris mused. "this painting must be the puzzle that will open it." Billy nodded his head in grim agreement.

The three of them focused on the painting, determined to solve it quickly. In the image sat an old man in Medieval-style clothing, holding a small gold disk in his hands. On the plaque underneath was the riddle: _Fifteen was one, but later two more. From grave to cradle, it has kept score._ Billy eyed the wall on either side of the painting, and noticed two hooks so small, you could hardly see them.

"Just what in the hell does that mean?!" Chris complained, but Billy's mind was already spinning with thoughts. The hooks could be for holding two more paintings.

"Did you guys pass any more paintings while you were running around here?" He asked. Jill looked blank for a minute, before she snapped her fingers.

"We passed a whole room of paintings just down the hall!" She took off running, leaving the men to follow. They reached the room she had been talking about with no issues, but their mood soon deflated. There must have been twenty paintings in the room, and they only needed _two_. "How are we supposed to know which are the right ones?" Jill sounded utterly defeated. "Rebecca would have figured it out already..." She sighed. Two of the paintings in the room caught Billy's eye.

"She already has." He said with a rueful grin. The other two looked at him in confusion. "Chris, grab that painting there on your left." Chris turned to do what he was told, obviously trusting that Billy knew what he was talking about. Billy ripped another off the wall near him, and headed back towards the passage way.

"What is it?" Jill asked while he studied the paintings in front of him. 

"You know how Becca tends to ramble when she starts getting all brainy?" The others nodded, obviously well aware of this trait as well. "Earlier, she told me about this decryption thingy that this guy thought up in like the fifteenth century. See the first part of the riddle? _Fifteen was one, but later two more._ " Billy pulled the painting of the Medieval guy off the wall and moved it to the first hook. 

"She said that after that it was used in the American Civil War by the Union soldiers." He continued. He picked up a painting of a dead soldier in a dark blue uniform and placed it on the middle hook. "And she said that it was used in the thirties for kids' radio shows. See the second part of the riddle? _From grave to cradle._ " Billy picked up the last painting, an image of a small child sitting on a floor, and placed it on the last hook. They watched in amazement as the door swung inward, revealing a new passage to them. _Couldn't have done it without you, baby._ Chris looked at him in astonishment. 

"You remembered her telling you all that?" Billy smiled a little sadly.

"I remember everything she says. Everything."

* * *

Rebecca felt weak. And hot. It was like there was an inferno racing through her veins, burning all thoughts and sanity out of her. _No! I have to hang on. For... for what?_ Her thoughts had grown foggy, and she was having trouble remembering what she was doing there. She tugged on her arms, and was surprised when the tight restraints snapped with almost no effort, like thin rubber bands.

Being released from the wall, she tumbled to her knees. _How do I walk again?_ She couldn't remember. She grasped the edge of a steel operating table to try and pull herself upright, but it only bent under her slim fingers. _What the hell is going on?_ She had a flash of a memory, of a needle pricking into her neck. She ran a shaking hand over her med-pack on her hip, fighting to get the inner compartment open. She relaxed a bit when she saw that the journal Wesker was after was still safely tucked inside.

Rebecca curled onto her side on the floor, another wave of painful burning running through her. She reached a shaking hand out on the floor, and pulled herself forward. She continued this movement, inching her way towards the doorway of the room.

_I'm sorry, Billy. I'm sorry I'm so weak._

Her thoughts began to tumble away again, as she single-mindedly crawled her way to the door.


	17. Fading Away

Rebecca propped her back against the wall, her breath coming in heavy gasps that she had to struggle for. She had made it half-way down the corridor outside the room she'd woken up in, but the progress had been slow and agonizing without proper use of her legs. _I can't do it..._ Rebecca wasn't usually one to give up, but she just didn't have any strength left in her. Her eyes had just begun to slip closed when she heard a distant voice calling her name. Forcing her eyes to raise again, she prayed that it was a friendly someone and not Wesker. Hands that felt like ice against her fevered skin were suddenly on her face, cupping her cheeks and forcing her head to turn their way.

"Becca..." She recognized the voice as Billy's, his face swimming in and out of focus to her hazy eyes. His voice sounded dismayed, on the verge of being utterly broken. _Poor Billy..._ "Becca, come on baby. Open your pretty eyes and look at me properly."

She forced herself to try and focus on him better, the effort making a dull throb form behind her eyes. There were lines of worry deeply etched into his handsome face, and his eyes were glittering with a whole swirl of turbulent emotions. Her heart ached for him. _He's been through so much already... and now he's going to lose me too._

"Billy..." Her voice was breathy and barely there. He forced a shaky smile to encourage her, but his fear was plain as day on his face. She heard a muted sniffle, and glanced up to see where the sound had come from. Chris and Jill hovered just past where Billy was huddled on the floor with her, silent tears coursing down Jill's cheeks as Chris clenched his jaw in concern and anger. The sight of the couple, and Billy's presence beside her, renewed Rebecca's will to fight. A grim smile sprang to her lips that seemed to startle them all.

"Becca?" Billy questioned softly, perhaps already wondering about her sanity. 

"I'm not dead yet." Chris and Jill seemed to settle a bit at the words, and Billy nodded his head in understanding of what she was trying to say.

"What do you need?" His voice was tight, his need to physically help her in some way obvious.

"He injected me with something. I need to get to a lab so that I can analyze my blood and figure out what it is." Chris nodded as he and Jill backed up to give her room to rise. "Billy..." She grabbed his arm lightly, but at his grimace of pain realized she had somehow left the beginnings of dark bruises on his skin. She could see the lines of worry on his face deepen at her apparent increase in strength. "I can't walk."

Without a word, he scooped her up into his arms, bearing her weight as if she were a rag doll. They sped down the corridor with Chris and Jill keeping eyes and guns ready for anything that might interfere with their progress. Rebecca laid her weary head on Billy's strong shoulder, trusting him to get her to where she needed to be.

* * *

The race to the bio-lab they had passed earlier was the longest and most torturous of Billy's life. As he cradled Becca's slight weight in his arms, he could feel the extreme heat pouring out of her body. Her skin was covered in a sheen of sweat, but somehow her face was still a sickly pale colour. Who knew what that bastard had injected her with? This was Billy's worst nightmare brought to reality... If his sweet Becca became some flesh-starved zombie - or worse, a mutated monster of some kind - he didn't know if he had it in him to do what needed to be done. _It's not gonna come to that. We'll figure it out in time... We **have** to._

As they crashed into the lab, he hurriedly deposited her into a chair and rolled it over to one of the abandoned desks that were covered in scientific equipment. There had to be something in there that would be of use to her.

"What do you need?" Jill questioned, her tone all business.

"Specimen tray... Microscope... Knife." Becca's voice was growing weaker by the minute and, whether he liked it or not, the panic was beginning to rise within him. The three of them raced around the room to collect the things she needed, placing them gently on the desk in front of her.

His worry got even worse when he watched her try to grip the scalpel that Jill had brought over. The usually sturdy steel bent like cheap plastic under her grip, and he could see the confusion all over her face as she stared down at it. _Side effect of whatever he injected her with, no doubt._ He gently took the metal out of her hand, and softly pressed the tip of one of her fingers to the blade himself, spattering a couple drops of blood onto the tray and placing it into the microscope for her. Billy and the others forced themselves to stay quiet while she studied whatever science thing it was that she needed to look at. It seemed like hours before she spoke.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" She asked weakly. Billy straightened from where he'd been slouched against a wall, instantly coming to attention. He sighed heavily, deciding that he really needed some good news at the moment.

"Good." His voice was terse, anxious to hear that she wasn't about to die on him.

"We can fix this." Billy let out the breath he'd been holding, and forced the tense muscles in his shoulders to relax a bit. 

"So then what's the bad news?" Chris' voice seemed to ring out in the quiet room, reminding them all that they weren't in the clear yet.

"I can make an antidote, but I'll need the ingredients... And quickly." She paused for breath, and the silence was filled with understanding. If they didn't get her what she needed fast enough, there would be no Becca _left_ to cure. "I need _Hypericum perforatum_ , _Chenopodium bonus henricus_ , and _Trifolium pratense_." The three of them stared at her blankly, and Becca's lips twitched with a smile. "I need three herbs: yellow, green, and red." Billy smiled back at her.

"Yellow, green, and red. Why didn't you just say so?" He smirked. He made a move towards the door, but was stopped by Chris' hand on his arm. 

"We'll collect the herbs." He said. "You stay with her. Call us on the radio if you need us." Billy nodded his head in thanks, and went back to Becca's side. Scooping her up, he sat the two of them on the floor behind the desk so that they couldn't be seen from the door. Settling her tiny body in his lap, he held her in the silence and listened to her struggle for breath, his heart aching with the sounds.

**_Billy - Age 28_ **

_Billy flipped himself over on the mattress for what must have been the eight thousandth time that night. No matter what he did, sleep was being a cruel bitch and escaping him. He kicked his favourite red blanket down to the end of the bed, deciding that maybe the problem was that he was overheated._

_Yeah. And tomorrow he'd burst into show tunes._

_Billy knew exactly why he **really** couldn't sleep; he just didn't want to admit it to himself. Her face swam into his mind's eye again, and he silently cursed at himself. It had been years, but tiny little Becca still had a hold on him. He'd tried to tell himself to put her out of his mind, to forget about her and move on with his life. She'd given him a second chance at living by claiming to her superiors that he was dead, but he found that he just couldn't enjoy it. He was glad not to be on death row, that was for sure, but... She haunted him._

_He could be walking down the street and catch a whiff of honey, and think of her. He could read or hear some random fact of news, and easily imagine it sprouting from her lips. When he did something reckless that she wouldn't have liked, her frowning and concerned face would appear in his thoughts. When he wolfed down his take-out and convenience store food - more out of necessity for survival than anything - he could picture what it would be like to have her seated across the table from him, enjoying better cooking together._

_And when he went to bed at night, his arms felt so empty._

_He'd tried telling himself all the reasons why he couldn't have her - he was too old for her, his soul was too twisted, she probably had a great life without him, they hardly knew each other - but nothing ever worked. He just couldn't pull her out of his mind._

_He had almost done it. He'd almost succeeded in giving up and moving on from her, when he got the message from one of his underground contacts. Rebecca Chambers was returning to Raccoon City, on a mission to bring down the evil Umbrella Corporation. This spelled utter defeat for Billy's plans of giving her up; he just couldn't leave her alone._

_Immediately he threw some provisions into a bag, and set out to save his girl._

**_Present Day_ **

Rebecca concentrated on the sound of Billy's heart thudding steadily under her ear. The sound was strong, and whispered promises to her own that it wouldn't cease to beat, not on his watch. She closed her weary eyes and breathed in Billy's scent, comforting herself with the strength of his arms around her. _If Chris and Jill don't make it in time, at least I'll end this life in my favourite place to be._

She felt his lips softly brush over the top of her head, and it made her smile. She tilted her head back so that her lips met his, needing to feel him against her just one last time. _I love him so much..._ When Billy drew back, she could see the worry and sorrow in his eyes. She shakily raised a hand to touch his cheek, wishing that she could comfort him somehow.

"How disgustingly sweet." The sound of Wesker's voice coming from just on the other side of the desk practically made her heart stop beating. Every muscle in Billy's body tensed around her, determined to protect her. She watched as Billy raised his head to pin Wesker with a lethal glare, daring him to try and take her away again. "Dear Rebecca, did you really think I wouldn't deduce where you had gone? Of course your first move after waking would be to try and heal yourself." He smiled at the two of them evilly, and her mind screamed at her to do something to save them, but her body was too weak.

"You know," Billy began in a deceptively mild tone. "a part of me really wants to make some witty retort, call you an asshole, and enjoy the moment. But right now? Mostly I just want to give you the slow and painful death you deserve." Rebecca could sense the rage that ran like a live-wire just underneath his skin, itching for the opportunity to burst out. And in all honesty, it scared her. She couldn't help but worry that he would be so blinded by his urge to punish Wesker that he would get himself seriously hurt... or worse, killed.

"You know that you won't win against me." Wesker taunted. "You've seen yourself the speed at which I can move. It would be an entirely futile effort." As he spoke, Wesker slowly moved around the desk and further into view.

"All I need is once." Billy responded. Rebecca watched their exchange silently, unable to do anything. "All I need is to get my hands on you once. If I can touch you, I can kill you." Billy sounded so sure of himself, while Rebecca was just frightened. She knew the demonic strength that Wesker hid behind his cool English façade. Billy stood at that moment, lifting her in his arms and gently depositing her on top of another desk behind them. He turned back to face Wesker, using his own body to shield her. 

"Though I do regret to deflate that hideously large ego of yours, Mr. Coen, my interest does not lie with you. I wouldn't have any compunction against killing you outright." Wesker's voice was cool and sure, and his eyes skimmed back over to land on her face instead, as if dismissing Billy from his thoughts completely.

* * *

"That's what you think." Billy smirked. He hoped like hell he could get Wesker chasing after him, giving Becca time to mix up her little wonder medicine and heal herself as soon as Chris and Jill brought her the ingredients. Wesker seemed to pause, as if puzzling out what Billy could possibly have that would interest him. "That's right..." He taunted. "I'm sure that you've got at least enough brains to figure _that_ one out."

"You..." Wesker began, but Billy soon cut him off. 

"Yeah. I've got your little book of evil." He sent Wesker a smart assed grin "I'll fight you for it." Wesker bared his teeth and growled in frustration, seeming less human and more the monster he was by the minute.

Suddenly, just as Wesker was taking his first steps toward Billy, an explosion rocked the facility and almost sent them all tumbling to the floor. Wesker glanced upward, as if he could somehow see through the upper floors to the source of the blast, and sent a punch to the wall beside him that shattered the brick and crumbled it. He whipped back around to glare at Billy. "You and I will finish this little... _discussion_ later, Mr. Coen." In a flash, Wesker had disappeared from the room. It was just few moments later when Jill came running into the lab, huffing for breath. 

"Got them!" She gasped as she placed the multicoloured plants on the desk beside Becca.

"Where the hell's Chris?" Billy questioned, concerned about the other man. Jill sent him a devilish grin.

"Creating a little distraction."

"The explosion?" He asked. She nodded her head. 

"We had just finished searching for some of the herbs in a security terminal, and happened to see what was going on here on one of the monitors." She explained. Billy smiled at their quick thinking, before another question occurred to him.

"You went looking for plants in a security terminal?" Jill rolled her eyes at that.

"Hey, don't knock it. These little suckers are in the most random places." Billy grinned and breathed out a sigh of relief, then went to inspect the unusual life-savers. Picking up the green one, he twirled it between his fingers to look at it from every angle.

"Becca..." He said in a musing tone. She turned from where she was shakily crushing up the other two herbs with Jill's help to glance at him in question. "...This looks like weed." Becca and Jill both stared at him for a minute, before bursting into some much-needed laughter.

"It's _Chenopodium bonus henricus_ , silly." She said with a laugh in her voice. He raised a brow at her, mostly just to keep the small smile on her face. "Also known as 'Good King Henry' or 'Markery' plant." He favoured her with a lopsided grin, thinking that she was just the smartest, sexiest, most adorable thing on the planet.

"Why didn't you just say so?"


	18. Salvation

Billy watched Rebecca curiously as she and Jill worked diligently toward making her cure. He hoped that these herbs worked to make it all better; when it came to Umbrella, you just never knew what fucked up things they could do to you. Rebecca's movements were weakening, and it made the sick feeling of panic begin to twist in his guts. As he watched her move, it suddenly occurred to him that she was missing something.

"Hey, Beautiful..." His voice was hesitant, and she glanced up at him with a curious look on her face. "How were you gonna.... 'take' these herbs?" She blinked at him, obviously not having thought that far. 

"I guess just finish powdering them, and eat the mixture down?" Jill mused, but Billy and Rebecca were already shaking their heads. 

"No. It'd get into her blood stream much faster if we would liquefy it and inject it." Rebecca seemed to think on that for a moment.

"I would need saline to combine the herbs with, as well as a syringe..." Billy new where she was going with it.

"You keep doing what you're working on, I'll go look for those and meet you back here." He was out the door before another word could be said.

* * *

Rebecca figured that one day she'd have to stop being surprised by Billy. He'd saved her life countless times, and the fact that he'd shown up in Raccoon City _at all_ proved how dedicated he was to her. He was always willing to go to the ends of the earth for her, to do whatever it took to make her safe. And yet, it somehow always came as a shock when he'd go out of his way to help her.

Rebecca contemplated why it was still surprising. The only answer she could give herself was that it stemmed from her inability to trust men. She'd had some pretty terrible experiences both before and after her time with S.T.A.R.S., and it had certainly left its invisible mark on her. Billy had only ever _given_ to her. _Yeah he did._ Her juvenile inner voice seemed to be back, despite the currently desperate circumstances, but it made her smile.

"Spill it." Jill demanded slyly. Rebecca flushed as she looked up at the older woman.

"What?" She asked, though she was fairly certain she knew exactly what Jill meant. Jill gave her a look.

"Rebecca..." She said sternly, almost sounding like a mother chastising her child. Rebecca sighed and gave in. 

"I... slept with him." Jill looked like she was on the verge of squealing like a girl at a slumber party. 

"Details, now. Go." Jill was grinning, excitement and mirth dancing in her eyes. Rebecca forced herself to lighten up a little. She smiled before answering. 

"He'd rescued me from falling to death, and we'd decided that we should probably just sit tight and wait for you two." She began, but Jill's shoulders just slumped a little.

"Honey, you have _got_ to learn how to tell a sexy story." Rebecca laughed at that, and continued on with her tale.

"I don't remember how it started, really. I just remember kissing him, and not wanting it to stop." She blushed even more, and Jill's grin got wider. "He tried to talk me out of it."

"...What?" Jill looked confused. "What man tries to talk a woman _out_ of sex?" Rebecca giggled.

"It was my first time. I think he just didn't want me to regret it." Jill's face softened.

"Oh... That's actually sort of sweet." Rebecca smiled, since that was exactly what she had thought as well. Jill grinned that devilish grin again. "So how was it? He looks like a... _big_ guy." Rebecca's face flamed. She set the mortar and pestle down that she'd been using to crush the herbs; she didn't have enough strength to continue doing it. 

Rebecca just hoped that she'd be able to do such a thing again, that the herbs would have enough time to take effect, before this sickness snatched her away from Billy. 

All she had left was hope.

* * *

Billy was searching through another laboratory-looking room, but so far hadn't been able to find saline or a clean syringe. He could feel sweat beading on the back of his neck from the pressure. _I'm running out of time, here. Come on!_

Just as he was about to give up on the room, something caught his eye. Sitting slouched against the far wall was a replica of the human skeletal system, one lone glass eye making the whole thing even creepier. _I wonder..._ Billy pulled the glass eye from his pocket, and holding his breath, he slid it into the vacant socket and waited. 

It took a moment, but a panel of the wall behind the skeletal figure moved to reveal a new passage. _Jackpot!_ The word had barely formed in his mind when a bunch of zombies appeared and came shuffling towards him. He grabbed for his Magnum and dispatched them like the pro that he was, before entering the small passage. He hoped that wherever it led would pay out for him. _Just hang in there, Becca. I'm coming._

The room that appeared at the end of the hallway was small, but crammed full of all sorts of things. Glass jars full of different coloured liquids, some with severed body parts, lined metal shelves. The place creeped him out hardcore. Billy spotted what looked like medical equipment on a shelf near the back wall, so he slid his way back there while trying to avoid touching anything else. He saw a box of vacuum-sealed syringes first, and grabbed a handful. It took a minute for him to locate a small bottle of saline that was stashed behind everything else. The relief washed over him that he had at least located the stuff... Now he just had to get back to her. 

On his way back out of the cramped room, he knocked a shelving unit with his shoulder and sent some of the creepy jars crashing to the floor. When the liquid from one of them began to eat through the concrete floor, Billy decided it was probably in his best interest to get the hell out of there. He booked a quick exit, and felt like he could breathe again when he made it back out of the small space. Not taking time to rest, he quickly retraced his steps to get back to the girls.

When he first entered the room, he couldn't see them. The ground herbs were laying on the counter where he'd left the girls working on them, but the women were nowhere to be found. Billy's heart felt like it had stopped beating when he heard a hushed voice coming from behind the desk. He sped his way around the surface, only to stop dead in his tracks. Jill was sitting on the floor, tears coursing down her cheeks while she tried to hold Becca's seizing body still. She glanced up at Billy, despair written all over her face.

"She... She just collapsed... I don't know what to do!" Jill's frantic voice snapped Billy out of his frozen state. Rushing to the desk's surface, he turned on a small burner to begin boiling the crushed herb with the saline to liquefy them. Tossing a wooden depresser that he found laying there to Jill, his old military training kicked in.

"Put this in her mouth so that she doesn't bite down on her tongue!" Jill did as he ordered, while Billy frantically tried to get the herbs and saline to mix. He could see Becca's stiff and shaking body out of the corner of his eye, but pushed the image to the back of his mind. The only way he could help her was to keep a cool head and get her 'cure' done.

The second that the mixture looked ready, turning into a deep brown liquid, Billy yanked the hot flask off the burner to suck up in the syringes, singeing his fingers in the process. There was enough of the liquid to fill two syringes, and Billy decided that it probably wouldn't hurt to give her both.

"Hold her still." He demanded of Jill, while he pulled Becca's right arm toward him. He lightly slapped the crook of her elbow a couple times to raise the vein while he squeezed her upper arm in his other fist as a make-shift tourniquet. They didn't have enough time to look for something better.

As soon as the vein popped enough, Billy injected the first syringe as gently as possible when in a hurry. Not giving himself time to second guess his choice, he quickly gave her the second syringe and let go of her upper arm. It took a few nerve-wracking moments, but the shaking of her body slowly subsided until she lay completely still across Jill's lap. But she didn't wake up. Billy's stomach twisted in agony as she remained unmoving. Jill slid a hand gently over Rebecca's cheek, brushing her lightly with her thumb.

"Rebecca..." She whispered, her voice shaking on the verge of more tears. "Rebecca, honey... wake up!" Billy could only stare at the deathly still form of his lover.

Dear god, what had he just done?

**_Rebecca - Age 15_ **

_Rebecca's head began to swim as she tried to pay attention to the lesson. She could feel her senses growing faint as a pounding in her head made it hurt to move her eyes. She knew exactly what was happening to her. She'd been through it before._

_Since Rebecca had turned twelve, she'd been in and out of the hospital for what she and her mother had begun to call her 'episodes'. It always began with a headache, followed by feeling faint and a numbness in her left arm. Rebecca had been through countless tests and operations in the quest to find out exactly what was wrong with her, but so far no conclusive answers had been given._

_Rebecca raised shaking hands to cover her eyes, her weak body slipping off the edge of her chair to the classroom floor. As she sat there, she could hear the laughter of the students around her who had assumed that she'd merely fallen off her chair. She also heard the laughter slowly die and the room become silent when the other students realized that she wasn't getting back up. Rebecca could feel gentle hands pulling her own away from her face, and painfully turned her eyes to see her friend Bailey kneeling in front of her._

_"Your 'thing' again?" She asked in a hushed voice, well practiced in helping Rebecca through her 'episodes'. Rebecca miserably nodded, trying not to move her head too much. Bailey motioned to their other friend, Lisa, to come help. "Up we go." She said as the two girls lifted Rebecca from the floor. The teacher, who had watched everything, spoke up._

_"I don't think you girls should be moving her from the floor." His squawking reminded Rebecca of an annoying bird, and it made her head hurt more. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bailey give him a disdainful glance._

_"We've been dealing with this for three years, we know what we're doing more than you do." Each taking a side, the two girls helped Rebecca out of the class and down the stairs to the school's office, the teacher fluttering around them and opening doors the whole time. When they reached the office, the secretary looked unsurprised._

_"Hello, girls. Better bring her around to the sick bed." Rebecca sent the secretary a weak smile, appreciative when she folded a warm blanket around her chilled body._

_Rebecca's relief when they finally discovered that her condition was treatable was palpable. She was glad she wouldn't suffer from it for the rest of her life; she'd had enough of being 'sick' - it was time for her to get on with her life._

**_Present Day_ **

Chris burst into the room, sweating and huffing for breath. He'd obviously given Wesker a merry chase after the explosion. He stopped dead in his tracks when he came around the desk to find Jill crying on the floor, cradling Becca's unmoving body, while Billy sat in shock with the empty syringe still dangling from his fingers.

"What..." Chris' voice was weak. "What the hell happened?!" Billy let the syringe drop to the floor unable to tear his eyes away from her body. Chris grabbed Billy by the front of his shirt, hauling him up off the floor in a rage. "What did you do!" He yelled, shaking Billy. "What the fuck did you do to her!" Billy couldn't force words to form; all he could do was stare at her beautiful face. He felt numb inside.

"Chris..." Jill said softly, but her voice quickly became louder when he only continued to glare at Billy. "Chris! She's breathing!" Both his and Billy's heads whipped around to look at the truth of what she was saying. The soft rise and fall of Becca's chest registered in Billy's mind and he broke away from Chris' grip to gather her tiny body into his arms.

"Becca?" He almost whispered to her, willing her to open her eyes. "Come on, Beautiful... Flash me those pretty eyes. You've gotta stop doing this to me, baby." Billy could feel tears prick at his eyes, but he was powerless to stop them. He ran a shaking hand over her cheek, tunneling his fingers into her loose braid at the back of her head. "Please, baby..."

His heart began to beat again when her sweet eyes opened and focused on his. She slowly raised a shaking hand to his cheek, and he knew that he'd never felt a more perfect touch in his life. He gathered her slight form closer to his chest, wanting to wrap himself around her and protect her from any more harm.

"Am I dead?" She croaked out in a hoarse voice, making a shaky smile come to his lips.

"No, baby." The simple answer was all he could manage at the moment. Chris sank to the floor in relief, gathering Jill into his arms. Rebecca glanced at them all around her, before tugging on Billy's sleeve. 

"We should get going." She said, and Billy looked at her like she was insane. _She almost dies on me, and now she wants to just hop up and get back to work?_ Becca seemed to recognize the look. "Billy, I just want to get the hell out of here." She said tiredly, and _that_ he could understand. He raised up from the floor, supporting her as she stood on wobbly legs. He felt a shiver run over her, and saw goosebumps spread across her bare arms. _Must be cold after running such a high temperature._ Billy stripped his long-sleeved shirt over his head, once again encompassing her in the warm fabric.

"What are you gonna wear?" She asked curiously, since he no longer had his tattered undershirt. Billy shrugged.

"I'll be fine." As the group of them turned for the door, Jill came up beside him. She brushed the last of the tears from her face, and shot him a watery smile.

"Hey, stud..." She drew his attention while they exited the room. He raised an eyebrow in question. "You've got a hickey on your shoulder."

She laughed when Billy checked his shoulder in surprise, and moved past him to join the others.


	19. The Final Countdown

Rebecca sighed in relief as the remnants of Billy's body heat that clung to his shirt warmed her chilled skin. Pulling the collar up to her nose, she breathed in his scent and let the familiarity of it calm her nerves. Though she couldn't remember much about collapsing, the looks on all of their faces when she had woken up told Rebecca how close of a call she'd just had. She was a bit in shock at how much better she was feeling already; her fever had subsided, and Billy's shirt was chasing away the subsequent chills. She could think clearly, and the awful dizziness was gone. Turning to look at Chris, she figured she'd start with the easiest of her questions.

"So what happened with Wesker?" Her voice was rife with curiosity. Chris merely shrugged.

"I figured that since I seem to be the one he hates the most, I'd take off and buy you guys some time while he chased after me. Wasn't much to it; shot at him a hell of a lot, which did nothing. Mother fucker dodges the goddamn bullets." Rebecca saw Billy wince at that out of the corner of her eye.

"How the fuck are we supposed to kill this asshole, then?" Billy growled. Jill seemed to muse that one over.

"Frag him?" She suggested. 

"Or decapitate him." Rebecca interjected. The group of them stopped in their tracks and turned to stare at her. "What?" She asked, a little defensive. Billy raised a brow.

"Just seems a little bloodthirsty for you..." Chris said, sounding a little shocked. Billy chuckled at that.

"Man, you don't know the half of it. She kicked all kinds of gruesome ass when I first met her on the Ecliptic Express. Girl's got a nasty streak." Billy grinned as he said it. Chris pulled a face.

"Between the mark on your shoulder and the way she stares at you, I really don't want to know about any 'nasty' streaks." He said, grimacing. Rebecca stared at him in shock.

"Chris!" She protested. He only rolled his eyes at her.

"You're like another baby sister to me; I just don't near to hear this shit." Rebecca started blushing furiously, and clobbered Billy on the arm for causing the whole awkward conversation. He merely laughed and rubbed the back of her neck with one hand to soothe her. Chris gave him a steely look, and Billy stopped laughing. "Also on that note," Chris said. "You and I are gonna have a talk after we make it out of this." Billy looked a little nervous. Good, Rebecca thought. Serves him right. 

They continued to traverse the twists and turns that made up the secret facility, and as the time passed Rebecca became more and more suspicious. _Wesker's awfully quiet at the moment. I wonder what he's up to._

"You remember that huge explosion at the Arklay place?" Billy asked her, out of the blue. Rebecca nodded her head.

"Yeah, that was insane. Only a few minutes to escape the self-destruct? I was surprised we survived it, to be honest." She replied. Chris and Jill shared a look.

"Umbrella seems to enjoy that last-minute 'fuck you', eh?" Jill mused. "The Spencer Mansion self-destructed, that place that Claire was taken to by that Ashford guy, all of them." Almost as if her words had been the proverbial kiss of death, a voice came over the loud speaker.

"Ten minutes to facility self-destruction." Jill threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Oh, come ON!" She yelled.

**_Billy - Age 21_ **

_Billy pushed his way to the front of the crowd, getting as close to the stage as he could, keeping a firm grip on Steph's arm while he was at it. He'd bought tickets to see her favourite heavy metal band for her birthday, and damned if he wasn't gonna get them a good view. She was nervous about being so close to the mosh pit, because she was so much smaller than all the hulking guys in the crowd, but Billy had promised her that he wouldn't let her get crushed._

_Once the concert got going, she seemed to lose a lot of her worry. The smile on her face was radiant as she sang and bounced along with the others standing on the fringe of the mosh pit. Occasionally, someone pushed too far by the moshing would slam into him. His larger frame handled the impact fine, keeping anyone from barreling into Steph's smaller body. It was going fine, until a couple of bastards thought they had gotten smart._

_All of the sudden, Billy felt hands grip the back of the shirt and rip him away from her. She turned, feeling his body leave, obviously a little frightened. Billy saw red. Swinging his arm, he dislodged one of the assholes with an elbow to the chest, and gripped the other around his neck, planting him to the floor. Billy glared down at him for a moment, making clear that if they tried that again it wouldn't end well for them._

_Billy returned to her side, assuring her that he wouldn't let anyone get near her. He always had been a protector at heart._

**_Present Day_ **

Billy grabbed a hold of Becca's wrist, tugging her along behind him as he raced for an exit. Chris and Jill hurried along with them, the countdown over the loudspeaker an ever-present ringing in his ears.

The countdown was at eight minutes when they ran into it. Huge and ugly, the thing looked like it might have been human once. It definitely wasn't anymore. Talon-like fingers dragged to the floor from both hands, and the hulking body looked like one giant mass of exposed muscle and sores. Billy turned to Becca when she spoke up.

"Is it a Tyrant?" She asked. Since Billy had no idea what she was talking about, he assumed she was asking the others.

"A Tyrant on crack, maybe..." Chris muttered. There wasn't much time for discussion; whatever the hell it was gave a roar and started charging toward the group of them. Billy pulled his trusty Magnum from the small of his back and took aim for the head. Even as he squeezed the trigger, he knew it wouldn't be that easy. The thing took the round to the face and didn't even slow down. The others joined in with squeezing bullets into the monster, but it just didn't seem to have an effect. 

Jill suddenly ran for a length of thick chain that was hanging from the ceiling, and Billy knew what she was going for. Darting out in front of the creature, he shot off a few rounds into its shoulder with the intention of annoying and distracting it.

* * *

Rebecca watched as Jill dragged the heavy chain behind her, and knew instantly what she had in mind. Clambering up some haphazardly piled boxes behind the Tryant-like creature, she took the cumbersome chain from Jill and struggled to lift it high over her head. Giving Billy a nod, she waited while he drove the creature back towards her. When it was near enough, she looped the chain as many times as she could around its neck before it thrashed and knocked her off the boxes.

Rebecca went flying from the impact, landing jarringly on the concrete floor. She groaned in pain, rolling to her side to check on Billy. He and Chris began drawing the monster toward them, pulling the chain taught around its neck and causing its talon-like fingers to rise and swipe at the chain.

"Now!" Billy yelled, and Chris swung a huge piece of sheared-off steel at the creature's now exposed stomach. The sharp edge of the steel sliced cleanly through the Tyrant-like thing, cutting it gruesomely in half. They all backed up a step from the spreading blood pool, unanimously deciding to keep up with their progress out of the facility.

"Five minutes to facility self-destruction." The voice sounded over the loud speaker just as they turned a corner into what looked like an aircraft hanger of some kind. 

"I'm on the 'copter." Chris said, voice full of determination as he ran for the sleek black helicopter resting in the middle of the hanger. "Jill, find a way to open the roof door!" Jill nodded at him and ran for a control panel that seemed like a good place to start. Rebecca stared at Billy, hope shining in her eyes that the ordeal was almost over. She could almost picture a countdown clock above their heads.

"We're almost clear of here, little girl." Billy reassured her.

"Don't call me 'little girl', Bitch." She said to him with a watery grin.

* * *

"Jerk." He replied with a smile. Giving into temptation, he leaned down and caught her lips with his. _I'm never letting her go after we get out of here._

"How very touching this all is." The voice grated on Billy’s nerves like nails down a chalkboard. Without turning, he closed his eyes in exasperation.

“Mother fucker… Can you just **die** already?!” He gritted out. He could perfectly envision the smirk that was entrenched in Wesker’s voice.

“Not at your hand.” Wesker sounded smug, and Billy finally turned to face him. _I’m gonna plant my fist into his fucking face, see if I don’t._ He could feel Becca back away from the two of them, moving over to help Jill and leaving him to what he so obviously wanted to do. Billy was done with the fun and games. He walked slowly toward the asshole, watching him like a hawk. Wesker didn’t even try to move out of Billy’s way, obviously confident in himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Billy could hear the sounds of Chris getting the ‘copter started up; the wind began to whip around them as he drew nearer to the blonde prick. “No more cute threats, then?” Wesker taunted, and Billy glared at the words. “Have it your way.” 

In a burst of speed, Wesker flew by Billy and nearly knocked him on his ass. He was confused by the relatively weak move until a thought suddenly struck him. Checking at the small of his back, Billy discovered that his good old Magnum was gone. _Okay, looks like we’re doing this the old fashioned way. One death by bare hands, coming up._ He watched as Wesker threw the gun to the side, obviously thinking that he would have Billy worried. Instead, Billy just gave him the most chilling grin of his life. It was a grin that said _eat shit and die, asshole_. He leaned his neck one way and then the other to crack it, shaking out his shoulders to loosen up. 

The next time that Wesker sped at him, Billy was ready. Watching the movements closely, he threw out an arm to catch Wesker in the throat at just the right moment. While Wesker was down, and obviously shocked that Billy had been able to hit him at all, Billy fisted the front of his shirt and lifted Wesker back to his feet. The sound of Wesker’s nose crunching under his fist was one of the most satisfying sounds that Billy thought he’d ever heard. _Well, not quite as satisfying as those little sounds that Becca… Nevermind. Head in the game, Billy._ Wesker regained his balance after the blow, zipping away to put some distance between the two of them.

“I’ve obviously underestimated you.” Wesker observed, his voice tinged with annoyance. “It won’t happen again.” Billy smirked at him.

“I doubt that, Princess.” He said. Wesker glared at him, and launched himself in another attack. This time Billy took the brunt of his weight fully to the solar plexus, the force of Wesker slamming into him laying Billy out on the floor. It was like being hit by a goddamn truck. The momentum had him sliding across the concrete floor, the rough surface shredding his bare back.

* * *

“Billy!” Rebecca cried. She had been helping Jill adjust valves so that the hydraulic system could open the roof of the hanger when she had heard Billy’s grunt of pain. As he pushed himself back up off the floor, the deep scratches and friction burns that now decorated his back made her cringe. _Gonna need to put some Shepherd’s Purse and Calendula on those cuts to heal them._

“Three minutes to facility self-destruction.” The warning coming over the loudspeaker made panic burn all the more hotly in Rebecca’s body. Turning her head to stare at the slowly-opening roof above them, she silently urged it to move faster. _Billy’s life just may depend on it._ She watched in horror as Wesker produced a sharp blade seemingly from nowhere, swiping at Billy’s throat and thankfully missing by a mere inch. _I can’t just stand here and watch this._

Rebecca crept up behind Wesker while he was focused on Billy, much as she had done with the creature in the damp corridor where Billy had first kissed her. That felt like it had been years ago, in relation. She wasn’t sure if Billy knew she was there or not; his focus never once waned from Wesker’s hummingbird-like form as the two of them threw punches and kicks. She drew her Berretta, aiming for the back of Wesker’s skull and holding her breath for a clear shot. Before she could squeeze the trigger, a large metal plank came crashing down from the ceiling, where the opening door had dislodged it. The stiff wire that had once held the plank in place hung low to the ground in between Billy and Wesker’s heavily-breathing forms. 

She raised her Berretta once again, since the shock of the plank crashing down had temporarily stopped the men’s momentum. Though her movement had been silent, Wesker somehow sensed that she was there and turned on her. The knife in his hand flashed dangerously, and a cold chill came over her skin. 

“One minute to facility self-destruction.” Rebecca began to back away, closer to the helicopter. She was just the distraction Billy needed, apparently. As Wesker remained focused on her, Billy dove for the hanging wire and quickly looped the middle of it tightly around Wesker’s neck. 

“Becca, get your ass on that bird!” He screamed at her, holding the end of the wire and running for the helicopter as well. She dove into the open side of it, landing hard behind the co-pilot seat that was already occupied by Jill. 

“Chris, take us up!” Rebecca gasped. Billy jumped for the rising helicopter, grabbing a nearby hold just in the nick of time. The muscles in his shredded back and arms strained as he pulled his weight into the moving aircraft. As the helicopter rose, the wire around Wesker’s neck tightened even further, preventing him from removing it. Caught between it’s attachment to the building’s structure and where Billy held it firm, the wire squeezed down on Wesker’s neck and began to cut into the pale flesh. Billy’s grip on the wire was causing it to cut into his own palm, Rebecca noted, and move quickly to help him get it wrapped around a steel post in the helicopter. Finally, the tissues and bones gave under the extreme pressure, and Wesker’s head separated from his body, tumbling to the floor. Rebecca pressed her face into Billy’s shoulder for comfort as the helicopter rose high in a dark night sky, the facility exploding into a symphony of light below them. 

“…‘Decapitate him’, she says.” Billy chuckled. “Girl, you are a fuckin’ genius.”


	20. Epilogue: A New Home

“No, no… Not there, Billy. Over there.” Rebecca pointed to a slightly shadier patch of the backyard, indicating that he put the picnic table he was carrying down there. _Man, I love watching him lift heavy things… Mmm…_

“…Okay, Beautiful.” He replied, a slight smirk beginning to pull at the corners of his lips.

“Don’t you give me that ‘okay’, Billy Coen!” Rebecca replied crossly. She’d learned pretty quickly in their relationship that when Billy said ‘Okay, Beautiful’ what it really meant was ‘Okay, but I still think you’re wrong’. He laughed outright at her ire, and she found herself fighting a smile. 

“Man, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you guys hated each other.” Jill mumbled as she hefted a table cloth and a bowl of potato chips towards the table that Billy had finally plunked down in the right spot. Her comment made Rebecca laugh; they’d been told plenty of times that they seemed to fight like cats and dogs, but anyone that really knew them also knew that almost all of the time their ‘fighting’ was just playful in nature. Rebecca turned with a smile as she felt Chris’ hand press lightly against her back.

“Why don’t you sit down?” He asked, a fake air of innocence to his tone that was doing nothing to cover up the over-protectiveness. “We can handle the rest.” Rebecca smirked at him, rubbing a hand fondly over her distended stomach. 

“Just because I’m pregnant, doesn’t mean I’m made of glass.” She said wryly, just to watch Chris squirm. She was so looking forward to the day that he and Jill had their first child… It was bound to be hilarious to watch him. 

“Yeah,” Billy called over, obviously having heard her comment. “I bet you any money she could still kick some zombie ass if she had to.” Rebecca felt a chill run down her spine, and clutched her stomach just a bit tighter. She really, really hoped that she would never have to deal with such things ever again. She didn’t want to bring a child into the kind of nightmarish world that they had all lived in. Brushing off the bad mood, she pasted a smirk on her face and turned back to her husband.

“I still kick your ass on a regular basis, so why not?” She replied cheekily. Chris and Jill laughed when all Billy did was shrug. 

“Yeah,” He said, grinning like a maniac. “but you know I just _enjoy_ that.” Rebecca shook her head over his antics, and went to seat herself somewhat awkwardly at the picnic table. Before she could sit down, however, Chris’ sister Claire seemed to pop out of nowhere. 

“Hang on a sec, Becca.” She called, carrying a large padded chair. Rebecca blinked at her in surprise as she plunked it down at the head of the table. “Hard wooden benches would probably be hell on the back for you.” She explained with a shrug. 

Rebecca smiled fondly at Claire before taking a seat, always a little awed by how sweet the girl was. She was tough as nails, and – from the stories she’d heard – just as experienced in the whole Umbrella disaster as the rest of them, but Claire somehow still retained a kindness about her when it came to her family. Nothing humbled Rebecca more than the fact that she and Billy were considered a part of that family. She watched as the rest of them brought out various bowls and platters that contained the rest of their picnic feast, smiling to herself at the antics between Billy and Chris. 

_I love my family._

* * *

Billy glanced over the table once more to make sure they had everything, before seating himself with the rest of them. Catching the soft smile on Becca’s face, he couldn’t help but ask. 

“What’s got you so smiley?” He said in a low undertone, out of everyone else’s earshot. She grinned at him, and he felt his breath catch at how beautiful she was. It struck him every day, just how lucky he’d gotten.

“I was just thinking…” She said, rubbing a hand softly over her tummy. She probably didn’t even realize she was doing it. “I love our family.” Billy smiled, turning to look over the others gathered at the table. Chris was pulling on his sister’s ponytail, obviously doing the big brother thing and annoying the hell outta her, while Jill was nagging at him to leave Claire alone and eat his food. It was so damn… domestic, something that Billy’d never thought he’d be able to have for himself.

“Yeah…” He mumbled affectionately. “I love our family too.” _And if that’s not enough to rot your fuckin’ teeth…_ He glanced back at Becca, taking in the loose sun dress that she had on. It was weird seeing her in a dress; it wasn’t often that she wore them. It seemed so… out of character, for her. _At least it’s black_ , he smirked to himself. Impending motherhood had really done nothing to get rid of that hellcat attitude of hers… and Billy couldn’t be more happy about that. 

Looking down at where her hands rested on her tummy, as if cradling the kid growing in there, he resisted the small surge of panic that rose up. Personally, Billy didn’t think he was gonna be the best father… He’d never really been around small kids, or had to deal with them. He’d even go so far as to say that he was bad with kids. But, Becca told him all the time that she had faith in him, that she thought he was gonna be an awesome dad… Billy supposed he’d just have to trust her judgement. Obviously, she saw something in him that he just wasn’t able to. That didn’t stop the whole prospect of fatherhood from scaring the living shit outta him, though.

“Stop eye-sexing that last burger.” He said to Chris, intent on having it himself. Chris narrowed his eyes at Billy, and leaned toward the platter anyways. In a flash, Billy had his trusty Magnum out and pointed at Chris’ forehead. _What can I say? Old habits die hard._ He smirked cockily at Chris as he waited for the other man to give in. Obviously, Chris knew that Billy would never _actually_ shoot him – at least, not over a burger – but it was worth it to see that way the women rolled their eyes over their antics.

“Oh, for Christ sakes, Billy…” Becca muttered, but there was a laugh buried in her voice. “You’re not shooting your child’s uncle, now put the gun away.” He pouted at her like a child himself, knowing it would make her laugh, while he tucked the Magnum into the back of his jeans. 

“You never let me have any fun.” He bitched, which made Claire dissolve into a fit of giggles. She only laughed harder when Becca snagged the last burger off the platter for herself.

“There. Now neither of you get it.” She said with an evil smirk.

_God damn, I love this woman._

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: all of Billy & Rebecca's flashbacks are based on actual things that my spouse & I have experienced. True story.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr as [MistressNobody](http://mistressnobody.tumblr.com/). Come say hi!


End file.
